CHICAGO 


AKD   TH« 


GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


BT 

ELIAS   COLBERT 

A»J> 

EVERETT    CTTAArRF.-RT.TN-. 


NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS,  BY  CHAPIN  &  GULICK, 


FKOM 


ir  Jimz  hten  n  tip  $$&. 


CINCINNATI  AND  NEW  YORK:  C,  F,  VENT. 
CHICAGO:  J.  S  GOODMAN  &  CO.    I    PHILADELPHIA:  HUBBARD  BROS. 
BOSTOS  :  EOWA»D  P.  HOTKT.    AUBCKJT,  N.  T. :  P.  M.  SMITH. 
SAX  FKAXCISCO  :  P.  DKWIXO  k  Co.  • 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

C.    E\    "VEjSTT, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington,  D.  C. 


STEREOTYPED   AT  THI 

FBANKLIN    TTPB    TOUWDBY, 

C1.SXI.NSAI1. 


COSTTElsrTS. 

PART  FIRST. 

PAOB 

INTRODUCTION,      ...  '..9 

I.  Geographical  position  of  Chicago — Meteorology — The  river — Com- 

mercial importance  of  the  site, .11 

II.  Aboriginal  history — The  early  French  explorers — Origin  of  the 
name  "  Chicago" — The  fur-traders, 14 

IIL  Fort  Dearborn — The  original  fort — The  first  "white  man"  a 
negro — John  Kinzie — Indian  troubles — The  fort  evacuated — The 
massacre  in  1812,  .........  17 

IV.  Re-occupation — The  fort  rebuilt — Major  Long's  visit  in  1823,      .     21 

V.  The  canal — The  work  advocated  in  Congress — A  company  formed 

— The  first  land-grant  by  the  United  States, 23 

VL  The  town  of  Chicago — Original  survey — Immigration — An  un- 
inviting place — County  of  Cook  organized — Indian  payment — 
Winter  experiences — The  Blackhawk  war — Packing — ^«'ew:com- 
ers — The  harbor — A  primitive  post-office — Churches — Indian  coun- 
cil— The  town — Commercial  relations — A  wolf-hunt,  •  25 

VII.  Inflation — The  speculative  epoch — Government  land-office — Ho- 
tel keeping  under  difficulties — First  fire  company — Sale  of  wharf- 
ing  lots — Work  commenced  on  the  canal — Marine  statistics,         .     39 

VIII.  The  city — Incorporation — Election  of  officers — Taking  the  cen- 
sus,         47 

IX.  The  collapse — Crisis  of  1837 — Its  causes — Five  years  of  depres- 
sion— Early  commerce — Education — Water  supply,      .        -        .49 

X.  Growing  again — The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  constructed — 
Its  effect  on  business — Land-sales — The  "  Garden  City  " — "  Milti- 
more's  Folly,"        ..........    58 

XL  The  expectant  period — Railroad  projects — The  cholera — Gas — 
Wharf-building — Formation  of  the  Board  of  Trade — Grain-elevat- 
ors,   67 

XT!.     The  railroad  era — New  departure — A  network  of  iron  rails — 

Rapid  extension, 73 

XIII.     Commercial  growth  in  the  railroad  era — Grain  trade — Good 

resolutions — Cattle-yards, 79 

(iii) 


IV  CONTENTS. 

PA  01 

XIV.  Manufactures  in  the  railroad  era — Establishment  of  factories — 
Banking, 82 

XV.  City  improvements  in  the  railroad  era — Extension  of  bounda- 
ries— Water  supply — Drainage — Bad  streets — Public  buildings — 
Schools  and  churches — Amusements — Newspapers,      .         .        .84 

XVI.  The  panic  of  1857 — A  financial  storm — Effects  on  commerce 
and  the  price  of  real  estate — Great  depression  in  business,          .     94 

XVII.  Lifting  up — Filling  the  streets,  and  raising  to  grade — Wooden- 
block  pavement — Growth  of  population — The  produce  movement — 
Manufactures,        .  97 

XVIII.  The  rebellion — Camp  Douglas — A  nation  in  arms — Recruit- 
ing for  the  field — Building  the  camp — The  prisoners — National 
Democratic  Convention, 101 

XIX.  Outside  Camp  Douglas — Purchase  of  government  supplies — 
Raising  recruits — The  great  conspiracy  to  burn   the  city — The 
draft — Cost  of  the  war — End  of  the  rebellion — Death  of  President 
Lincoln,          ...........  107 

XX     Aiding  the  soldiers — The  "Soldiers'  Home" — Sanitary  labors — 

The  great  fairs — Receiving  the  returning  veterans,       .        -        .  Ill 

XXI.  Chicago  during  the  war — Twelve  millions  of  dollars  swept  out 
of  existence — Wonderful  growth  of  commerce  and  manufactures 

— Numerous  and  extensive  city  improvements,      .         .         .         .113 

XXII.  Peace  and  prosperity — Temporary  depression  on  the  close  of 
the  war — Mercantile  embarrassments — Speedy  recovery — Tremen- 
dous strides  onward,       .........  123 

XXIII.  Commerce  of  1870 — Statistics  of  business — Foreign  and  do- 
mestic trade — The  banks  and  elevators— Railroads,      .         .         .  125 

XXIV.  Manufactures  in  1870 — The  work  of  one  decade — Compari- 

•  sons — Incomes  of  the  people,         .......  133 

XXV.  Property — Real  estate — Assessed  and  actual  values  of  real 
and  personal  property — Sales — Extension  of  business  area,         .  136 

XXVI.  The  parks — A  grand  system  of  public  parks  and  boulevards 

— Effects  on  real  estate,         .        .         . ' 139 

XXVII.  Taxation — City,  State,  and  county  taxes — Municipal  debt — 
Special  assessments, 144 

XXVIII.  Building  after  the  war — Number  and  character  of  new  busi- 
ness structures — Churches,  schools,  universities,  etc. — The  big  tel- 
escope— Hotels — Tunnels  under  the  river — City  buildings,  .         ,  145 

XXIX.  The  lake-tunnel — Description  of  the  "big  bore,"  and  its  ca- 
pacities— The  giant  crib — Water  supply, 155 

XXX.  Other  public  improvements — Sewerage — Street-paving — Side- 
walks— Deepening  the  canal,         .......  160 

XXXI.  Commercial  improvements — Harbor  extensions — New  dock 
system  along  the  lake-shore — Calumet — The  great  union  stock- 
yards,     163 

XXXII.  Chicago  in  1871 — Statistics  of  population,  area,  number  of 
buildings,  and  valuations  of  property — Religious  and  educational 
— The  railroad   system — Commerce  and  manufactures — General 
plan  of  the  city — Sanitary,  educational,  scientific,  literary,  artistic, 
and  moral  status — The  city  government,        .         .        .        .         .167 


CONTEXTS.  V 

MOB 


XXXIII.  Science  of  the  fire — The  conflagrations  in  Chicago  and  the 
lumber  regions  of  the  North-west — A  startling  chapter  in  the 
world's  history — Meteorological  and  climatic  changes  involved — 
The  cause — Extraordinary  drought — Sun-spots,  ....  188 


PART   SECOND. 

I.  The  great  conflagration — The  fire  as  a  hero — It  marches  through 

four  miles  of  solid  buildings — It  takes  them  all — A  plain  account 
of  the  operations  of  the  "  fiend," 201 

II.  A  night  of  terror — Fleeing  for  life — A  city  full  of  sleepers  sur- 
prised and  stampeded — Chased  into  the  lake — The  merciless  ele- 
ments— Ruffianism  and  rapine — A  thousand  dollars  to  a  carter — 
Escape  to  the  prairies,  .........  214 

III.  Personal  experiences — The  early  stages  of  the  fire — The  purlieu 
which  generated  it — A  scene  lor  a  fire-worshiper — A  weird  pro- 
cession— Discussing  the  future  by  the  light  of  the  past,       .         .  226 

IV.  Narrative  of  Alexander  Frear — A  fond  mother's  mishaps — Scenes 
on  the  avenues — Rifling  the  dry  goods  palaces — How  a  pious  soul 
prayed  herself  to  death — Asking  too  much  of  Providence — Hu- 
man diabolism — Cheapness  of  life,        ...*...  236 

V.  Narrative  of  Horace  White,  Esq, — How  the  "  bloated  aristocrats  " 
took  it — A  parrot  equal  to  the  emergency — Sheridan  in  the  fray 

— The  gunpowder  cure,         .         .         .         .         .        .        .         .  246 

VI.  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold  defends  his  castle — A  vain  contest — Over- 
powered and  routed — Running  the  fire  blockade,          .        .         .  254 

VII.  The  night  after  the  fire — Flood  and  flame — A  hopeless  sortie 
— A  ghostly  bivouac — Separation  of  families — Days  and  nights 

of  suspense  and  anxiety — Nothing  to  eat,     .....  263 

VIII.  The  death  roll — Fatalities  of  the  fire — How  brave  men  met  their 
death — A  fatal  leap — A  neighborhood  swallowed  up  by  flames — 
Scene  at  the  morgue.     .........  270 

IX.  The  desolation  completed — The  day  after  the  fire — A  glimpse  at 

the  feeling  in  the  country — A  view  at  daybreak — Chicago's  ghost,    277 

X.  The  losses  by  the  fire — Property  destroyed — Can  land  burn  up? 
— Values  of  business  blocks,  hotels,  and  other  prominent  build- 
ings— Produce  and  merchandise  destroyed — Real  estate  as  affected 
by  the  fire — Uninsurable  losses — Commerce  and  manufactures — 
The  effect  on  business — The  grand  total,      .....  285 

XT.  Insurance— The  fire  underwriters — Better  than  expected — The 
adjusters — Statement  of  assets  and  losses  of  companies  doing  busi- 
ness in  Chicago — Insolvent  companies — What  is  essential  to  real 
protection  against  loss  by  fire, 304 

XII.  What  was  left — The  city  not  ruined — Mistaken  advice — A  state- 
ment of  profit  and  loss — Comparison  of  1868  with  1871 — The  dis- 
aster equivalent  to  a  destruction  of  three  years'  growth.  .  .  315 


VI  CONTENTS. 

FAOE 

XIII.  The  business  outlook— The  first  two  days  after  the  fire — Pre- 
paring to  resume — Extraordinary  calmness  under  suffering — Work- 
ing with  a  will — The  newspapers — Meeting  of  bankers  and  busi- 
ness men — Cheering  news  from  insurance  companies,  .         .        .319 

XIV.  Aid  from  the  State — Much  sympathy  and  great  expectations — 
The  Governor's  message — The  canal  lien  assumed  by  the  State — 
The  new  Custom-house  and  Post-office — The  old  land-marks  to  be 
renewed, .'.        .  325 

XV.  The  resurrection — Business  on  its  feet  again — The  course  pur- 
sued by  the  banks — A  plethora  of  money — The  Board  of  Trade, 
and  produce  movement — Mercantile  indebtedness — Action  of  East- 
ern creditors — Strength  of  Chicago's  business  men — Retail  dealers 

in  council,     ...........  329 

XVI.  Reconstruction — Business  on  the  lake-front — Wooden  and  brick 
structures — Loss  of  time — Old  customers  and  new  friends — Rail- 
road earnings — Price  of  lumber — The  fire  limits — How  shall  the 
city  be  rebuilt? N  .        .        .        .336 

XVII.  The  losses  again — Particular  cases — Noted  buildings  destroyed 
— The  Germans — How  the  millionaires  came  out — Not  a  vestige  of 
a  law  library  left — Art  and  literary  treasures  despoiled — Who  lost 
and  who  gained  by  the  fire, ,  340 

XVIII.  Incidents  and  curiosities — Oases  in  the  desert — A  dwelling 
saved  with  cider — Thrilling  scene  in  the  tunnel — How  the  heat 
burnt  up  iron  columns  and  left  butter  unmelted — The  man  at  the 
crib — Human  nature — Good  and  bad  phases — Drawing  the  long 
bow,      , 348 

XIX.  Remarkable  revelation — Scripture  for  the  occasion — Married 
in  the  smoke  of  the  flames — How  Robert  Collyer  and  his  people 
fought  for  their  church — Grandmother's  rocking-chair — How  a 
coal-dealer  saved  his  pile — Fire  as  a  curative  agency — More  about 

the  degree  of  heat— Ihe  divorce  business,  etc.,     ....  358 

XX.  Why  she  was  destroyed — Origin  of  the  fire — Why  it  spread  so 
fast  and  far — Was  there  incendiarism  ? — The  Communist  story — 
Chicago  architecture — Chicago  administration — Operations  of  the 
Fire  Department, 366 

XXI.  The  newspapers  and  the  fire — What  they  said  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, October  8— Prophecies  suddenly  fulfilled — "Old  and  tried" 
insurance  companies  tried  too  much — The  episode  in  the  Tribune 
office — A  "red-hot"  newspaper — Cheery  counsel  in  trouble — How 
the  journals  rose  from  their  ashes — Curiosities  of  advertising,      .  374 

XXII.  A  week  without  water — A  day  of  chaos — The  exodus  from  the 
city — No  water — Nights  of  terror — Fear  of  incendiarism — The  citi- 
zen patrol — Stories  of  summary  vengeance — Military  law — Halt! 

— The  relic  business — Restoration  of  water  and  confidence,          .  388 
XXIIL     The  churches  after  the  fire — The  next  Sunday — Assembling 
under  the  ruined  walls — Robert  Collyer's  adventures — Trying  to 
save  Unity — Lessons  of  hope  and  courage,   .....  400 
XXIV.     Sympathy  and  relief — How  the  world  was  shocked  by  the 
event — The  excitement  in  America — Nothing  like  it  since  the  war 
— Showers  of  money  and  avalanches  of  goods  for  the  sufferers— 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

VAM 

Scenes  and  deeds  in  New  York,  Boston,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Lon- 
don, and  other  cities, -  408 

XXV.  Administration  of  relief — Gathering  in  the  homeless — Scenes 
in  the  churches — Caring  for  the  sick — The  "Relief  and  Aid  So- 
ciety"— Plan  of  its  work — History  of  its  operations — Board  and 
lodging  for  60,000—11,000  houses  built  and  furnished  for  $110 
each  in  two  months,      .........  421 

XXVI.  Humors  of  the  fire — Enjoying  a  bonfire  of  one's  valuables — 
How  a  lap-dog  was  saved — Burning  up  the  freedom  of  the  Ne- 
groes— "Billy,  propose  a  resolution" — The  first  conundrum  of  the 
new  era — The  calamitous  cow — No  confidence  in  Chicago  as  a 
ruin — The  pathetic  ballad  of  Eva  Boston,  etc.,     ....  434 

XXVII.  Good  out  of  evil — Some  wholesome  effects  of  adversity — 
Business  faults  corrected — Aristocracy  scotched  out — How  fire 
purifies — How  individuals  may  attain  improvement — How  the  body 
politic — How  humanity — The  sublimest  spectacle  of  the  century,    445 

XXVIII.  The  new  Chicago — Five  years  hence — Why  Chicago  will 
keep  marching  on — Rate  of  recuperation — Railroads  and  traffic — 
Changes  in  the  appearance  of  the  city — Harbor  and  river — Things 
which  will  not  be  improved — Population  in  1876,          .        .        .  454 

Appendix  A,  .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  •     .        ...  463 

Appendix  B, 495 

Appendix  C,  ...........  510 

Appendix  D, •••..  525 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  Map  of  Chicago. 

2.  Chicago  in  1820. 

3.  Chicago  in  1833. 

4.  Chicago  in  flames. 

5.  Chicago  in  ruins. 

6.  Masonic  Temple  in  ruins. 

7.  St  James  Hotel 

8.  Tribune  Building. 

9.  Chamber  of  Commerce,  before 

the  fire. 

10.  Chamber  of  Commerce,  after  the 

fire. 

11.  Post-office  and  Custom-house. 

12.  Where  the  fire  begun. 

13.  First  National  Bank,  before  the 

fire. 

14.  First  National  Bank,  after  the  fire. 

15.  Rush  Medical  College. 

16.  Fifth  National  Bank. 

17.  Bigelow  House. 

18.  Pacific  Hotel. 


19.  N.  E.  Cor.  Clark  and  Randolph. 

20.  Tremont  House. 

21.  Lasalle-street  Tunnel. 

22.  Michigan  Southern  R.  R.  Depot. 

23.  Insurance  Block. 

24.  Cor.  Clark  and  Randolph  Streets. 

25.  Jackson  Street. 

26.  Field  &  Leiter's  Store. 

27.  Cor.  Lasalle  and  Washington  Sts. 

28.  New  Honore  Block. 

29.  St.  James  Church. 

30.  Church  of  the  Holy  Name. 

31.  First  Presbyterian  Church,  south 

side. 

32.  Second  Presbyterian  Church. 

33.  Methodist  Church  Block. 

34.  New  England  Church,  Congrega- 

tional. 

35.  St.    Joseph's     Priory,     German 

Catholic. 

36.  Trinity  Church,  Mr.  Collyer'g. 


INTRODUCTION. 


FT1HE  terrible  conflagration  in  Chicago  will  long  be  remem- 
bered  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  events  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  In  the  evening  of  Sunday,  October  8,  1871, 
a  stable  took  fire,  and  within  twenty-four  hours  thereafter  the 
flames  had  swept  over  an  area  of  more  than  twenty-one  hun- 
dred acres,  destroying  nearly  three  hundred  human  lives,  re- 
ducing seventeen  thousand  five  hundred  buildings  to  ashes, 
rendering  one  hundred  thousand  persons  homeless,  and  sweep- 
ing out  of  existence  two  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of 
property.  Without  a  peer  in  her  almost  magical  growth  to 
what  seemed  to  be  an  enduring  prosperity,  the  city  of  Chicago 
experienced  a  catastrophe  almost  equally  without  a  parallel  in 
history,  and  the  sad  event  awakened  into  active  sympathy  the 
whole  civilized  world. 

Such  intense  anxiety  to  catch  every  item  of  intelligence  about 
the  great  conflagration,  such  a  spontaneous  outburst  of  liber- 
ality in  aiding  the  sufferers,  has  never  before  been  exhibited, 
except  in  times  of  national  disaster.  And,  indeed,  the  calam- 
ity was  universally  recognized  as  affecting  every  one,  not  only 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

in  the  United  States,  but  in  other  countries.  As  the  greatest 
primary  market  for  produce  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  Chicago 
had  long  been  regarded  as  the  cornucopia  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, while  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  her  citizens  had  made 
her  an  object  of  envy  to  many  other  cities,  and  the  wonder  of 
the  world.  Her  fame  had  spread  far  and  near,  and  not  even 
Solomon,  in  all  his  glory,  ever  excited  so  much  admiration 
among  those  who  went  to  see  and  found  that  the  half  had  not 
been  told  them. 

The  present  volume  is  intended  to  supply  the  wide-spread 
popular  desire  to  obtain  full  and  accurate  information,  in  per- 
manent form,  about  Chicago  in  her  prosperity  and  affliction. 
It  contains  a  concise  resume  of  her  previous  history;  a  state- 
ment of  her  condition  just  before  the  fire;  a  graphic  account 
of  the  great  conflagration;  a  carefully-revised  summary  of  losses 
of  life  and  property ;  a  description  of  the  aspect  of  the  city  after 
the  sad  event;  a  history  of  the  exertions  made  to  aid  the  suffer- 
ers; with  a  review  of  the  subsequent  efforts  made  to  rebuild 
the  city  'mid  the  ashes  of  its  former  greatness. 


CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


I.    GEOGRAPHICAL  POSITION  OF  CHICAGO. 


H  1C  AGO  is  situated  on  the  south-western  bend  of  Lake 
Michigan,  at  the  head  of  the  great  chain  of  American  lakes, 
and  is  nearly  600  feet  above  the  sea-level,  the  height  of  the 
lake-surface  being  574  feet.  What  is  now  the  business  portion 
of  the  city  was  originally  but  a  few  inches  above  the  lake-level, 
and  the  surface  was  often  covered  with  several  inches  of  water 
for  months  together.  It  is  only  within  the  past  few  years  that 
the  place  has  been  raised  from  seven  to  ten  feet  by  the  process 
of  filling  in,  so  as  to  give  a  drainage  that  permits  of  the  clean- 
liness that  is  necessary  to  the  health  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
average  annual  fall  of  rain  is  31f  inches;  the  average  tempera- 
ture is  about  50  degrees.  The  Court-house  square,  which  is  sit- 
uaied  about  midway  between  the  north  and  south  limits  of  the 
city,  and  half  a  mile  west  of  the  lake-shore,  is  in  north  latitude 
41°  52'  20".  The  longitude  west  from  Greenwich  is  5h.  50m. 
28s.  (87°  370,  and  oh-  42m-  17s-  west  from  Washington.  The 
city  is  surrounded  by  what  is,  relatively,  almost  a  dead-level; 
the  prairie  stretching  away  to  a  distance  of  several  hundred 
miles  south,  west,  and  north,  with  scarcely  an  undulation  of  im- 
portance. 

With  such  conditions  it  is  evident  that  the  term  "  Chicago 

(11) 


12  CHICAGO  AXD  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

River,"  abont  which  the  world  has  heard  so  much,  is  a  mis- 
nomer. Within  the  city  limits  the  western  shore  of  the  lake 
runs  nearly  due  north  and  south,  trending  about  two  points  to 
the  west  of  north.  One-eighth  of  a  mile  north  of  the  Court- 
house line  a  bayou  strikes  westward  to  the  distance  of  five- 
eighths  of  a  mile,  then  divides  into  two  branches,  both  of  which 
run  nearly  parallel  with  the  lake-shore  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance. Near  the  end  of  the  south  branch  a  canal  commence?, 
which  extends  to  the  Illinois  River  at  Lasalle,  a  distance  of 
ninety-six:  miles.  This  canal  has  recently  been  deepened,  so 
that  the  waters  of  the  lake  flow  slowly  along  the  "river"  and 
the  canal,  into  the  Illinois  River,  and  thence  into  the  Missis- 
sippi. If  the  bayou  at  Chicago  were  a  "river,"  it  would  fur- 
nish an  instance  of  that  wonderful  phenomenon,  "  water  run- 
ning up  hill."  The  current  flows  at  the  rate  of  about  one  mile 
per  hour. 

The  banks  of  this  river  and  its  branches  have  furnished  the 
dockage  of  Chicago,  and,  at  the  time  of  the  great  catastrophe, 
all  the  available  space  was  so  fully  occupied  that  large  systems 
of  additional  docks  were  being  constructed  along  the  lake-shore, 
outside  what  was  usually  known  as  the  "  harbor." 

In  the  geographical  and  topographical  position  of  Chicago, 
as  above  sketched,  we  have  the  key  to  the  wonderful  commer- 
cial prominence  which  she  attained  in  such  a  short  time,  that 
some  of  those  whose  all  was  swept  away  in  the  conflagration 
of  October,  1871,  were  among  the  earliest  settlers  in  the  village 
that  afterward  became  a  mighty  city.  The  belt  of  only  a  few 
degrees  in  width,  that  includes  the  highest  type  of  civilized  ad- 
vancement and  the  greatest  energy  in  the  development  of  cereal 
growth,  has  the  city  of  Chicago  situated  nearly  midway  between 
its  southern  and  northern  limiting  lines,  and  the  head  of  the 


GEOGRAPHICAL  POSITION  OF  CHICAGO.  13 

lake  system  was  naturally  the  point  at  whicfc  the  grain  and 
other  produce  of  the  great  North-west  should  be  unloaded,  first 
from  wagons  and  afterward  from  railroad  cars  and  canal-boats, 
to  be  placed  on  vessels,  where  the  wind  should  replace  horse  or 
steam  as  a  motive  power,  and  carry  that  produce  forward  on  its 
way  to  supply  the  wants  of  a  hungry  world.  The  place  where 
the  property  changed  hands  was  also  the  place  where  it  would 
change  ownership,  as  the  smaller  quantities  laid  down  there 
would  need  to  be  massed  into  larger  amounts  for  the  long  lake- 
journey  in  great  vessels.  That  fact  attracted  capital  to  the  spot, 
and  then  another  point  was  soon  developed:  The  growers  of 
produce  would  spend  their  money  in  the  place  where  they  sold 
their  property,  if  they  could  there  find  what  they  wanted  on  as 
favorable  terms  as  elsewhere.  And  thus  Chicago  grew,  in  her 
double  function  of  receiver  and  forwarder  of  Western  produce  to 
the  East  and  to  Europe,  and  of  distributor  of  other  necessaries 
and  luxuries  to  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and  the  manifold  indus- 
tries that  clustered  around  them.  With  this  came  the  estab- 
lishment of  numerous  manufactories  for  the  supply  of  the  wants 
both  of  the  city  and  of  the  country  beyond,  and  the  adoption 
of  many  processes  by  which  the  property  in  transit  was  better 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  buyer.  These  built  up  the  city  on 
the  foundations  laid  by  nature.  The  position  with  respect  to 
the  surrounding  country  established  the  place  as  the  natural 
depot  for  collection  and  distribution  in  both  directions;  the  en- 
terprise and  energy  of  the  men  who  were  attracted  thither  by 
those  natural  advantages  did  the  rest. 

The  result  of  the  operation  of  these  two  sets  of  causes,  was  a 
rapidity  of  growth  that  scarcely  finds  a  parallel  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Other  cities  have  grown  as  rapidly  for  a  few 
years,  but  we  call  to  mind  none,  either  in  the  old  world  or  the 


14  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

new,  that  has  exhibited  an  almost  uniform  increase  of  popula- 
tion at  the  rate  of  more  than  ten  and  a  half  per  cent,  per  an- 
num during  thirty-five  years,  with  an  even  greater  augment  in 
business  volume  and  property  values.  That  was  the  scale  on 
which  Chicago  was  developed,  from  the  time  of  her  incorpora- 
tion as  a  city,  in  1837,  till  the  memorable  catastrophe  in  1871: 
And  the  events  of  the  short  period  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
calamity  tend  to  show  that  she  will  exhibit  as  great  a  ratio  of 
growth  in  the  future.  The  history  of  such  a  wonderful  progress 
can  not  but  be  of  intense  interest  to  millions  of  readers. 


II.    ABORIGINAL   HISTORY. 

\ OR  many  centuries  before  Chicago  was  visited  by  a  white 
man,  it  was  the  home  of  the  Red-skins,  and  appears  to 
have  been  successively  occupied  by  several  Indian  tribes. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  place  was  a  favorite  rendez- 
vous for  Indians,  as  it  afforded  facilities  for  fishing,  and  formed 
the  terminus  of  a  long  route  of  canoe  travel,  the  divide  between 
the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois  River  being  so 
shallow  as  to  necessitate  but  a  very  short  portage.  The  ear- 
liest of  these  tribes  of  which  we  have  any  record  was  the  Tama- 
roas,  the  most  powerful  of  many  Illinois  families,  and  who 
claimed  the  name  Checaqua  as  that  of  a  long  succession  of 
their  chiefs,  just  as  Pharaoh  was  the  name  of  many  successive 
Egyptian  kings. 

The  first  white  men  known  to  have  visited  the  region  were 
Marquette  and  Joliet,  two  Jesuit  missionaries,  who  were  there 
in  1662-3,  only  three  or  four  years  before  the  great  fire  that 


ABORIGINAL  HISTORY.  15 

laid  in  ashes  two-thirds  of  the  city  of  London,  England.  It 
was  subsequently  visited  by  two  other  French  explorers,  Hen- 
nepin  and  La  Salle.  The  first  geographical  notice  of  the  place 
is  found  in  a  map,  dated  Quebec,  Canada,  1688,  on  which 
"  Fort  Checagou "  occupies  the  exact  location  of  the  present 
city,  and  the  form  of  Lake  Michigan  is  represented  quite  cor- 
rectly. In  an  atlas,  published  in  '1696,  by  Le  Sieur  Sanson, 
"  Geographer  to  the  King ,"  we  find  the  whole  Mississippi 
River,  from  its  origin  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  named  Chaca- 
qua.  In  other  old  works  it  is  called  the  "  Chacaqua  or  Divine 
River."  A  manuscript,  purporting  to  have  been  written  in 
1726  by  M.  de  Ligny,  at  Green  Bay,  and  brought  from  France 
by  General  Cass,  mentions  the  place  as  Chicagoux;  and  that 
name  is  found  to  occur  several  times  in  the  official  correspond- 
ence of  the  earlier  years  of  the  present  century. 

The  name  "  Chicago "  has  been  variously  interpreted  to 
mean  "Skunk,"  or  Pole-cat,  an  animal  supposed  to  have 
abounded  there,  and  "Wild  Onion,"  after  the  herb  which  is 
known  to  have  grown  profusely  on  the  banks  of  the  creek. 
But  the  above  historical  facts  tend  to  prove  that  the  word 
had  a  much  nobler  meaning;  added  to  which,  we  know  that 
the  word  Checaque  was  used  as  the  name  of  thunder,  or  the 
voice  of  the  Great  Manitou.  It  has  been  suggested,  however, 
that  all  of  the  above  intentions  may  be  harmonized,  if  we 
attach  to  the  name  the  meaning  of  "strong,"  as  it  is  well 
known  that  the  Indian  speech  contained  many  more  of  these 
incongruous  congruities  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  languages 
of  the  present  day. 

The  Indians  retained  undisturbed  possession  of  the  site  long 
after  the  whites  had  began  to  settle  in  the  West.  That  settle- 
ment was  principally  made  from  the  Southern  States — Virginia 


16  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

and  Kentucky — -from  the  eastward,  and  by  the  French  from 
the  south,  up  the  Mississippi.  Hence  the  southern  part  of  the 
present  State  of  Illinois  contained  a  considerable  white  popula- 
tion, while  the  wolf  and  the  Red  man  only  disputed  with  each 
other  possession  of  all  north  of  the  State  capital  (Springfield), 
except  in  the  little  patch  of  ground  occupied  by  the  United  States 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Chicago  harbor.  Illinois  was  first  or- 
ganized as  a  county  of  Virginia  in  1778,  and  was  made  a 
separate  territory  in  1809,  but  the  territorial  lines  did  not 
include  Chicago ;  the  northern  boundary  running  due  west  from 
the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Mississippi. 
In  1815,  Hon.  Nathaniel  Pope,  just  elected  to  represent 
the  territory  in  Congress,  procured  the  passage  of  an  act  ex- 
tending the  northern  line  of  the  territory  to  42£  degrees  of 
latitude,  thus  giving  to  the  State  a  most  valuable  line  of  lake 
frontage,  which  now  contains  the  three  harbors  of  Chicago, 
Calumet,  and  "VVaukegan.  The  territory  was  elevated  to  the 
dignity  of  a  State  in  1818,  the  capital  being  Kaskaskia. 
Shadrach  Bond,  of  that  city,  was  elected  as  the  first  governor, 
in  October  of  the  same  year. 

The  influx  of  settlers  from  the  south  was  now  quite  rapid, 
but  the  immediate  effect  of  the  movement  was  to  cause  the 
different  tribes  of  Illinois  Indians  to  crowd  northward,  and 
make  the  site  of  Chicago  alive  with  red-skins,  who  clung  all 
the  more  pertinaciously  to  the  soil,  as  the  finger  of  fate  point- 
ed to  their  removal  farther  west  at  no  distant  day.  The 
business  of  trading  for  furs  became  an  important  one,  and 
traders  gathered  in  the  vicinity  to  purchase  their  stocks  and 
send  them  eastward.  This  traffic  was  first  established  about  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  marked  a  prominent 
phase  in  the  history  of  the  location. 


FORT  DEARBORN.  17 


III.    FORT    DEARBORN. 

ri^HE  year  following  his  first  visit  to  Chicago,  Pere  Mar- 
-*-  quette  returned,  and  erected  a  building  for  the  purposes 
of  worship.  The  French  subsequently  formed  a  plan  to  extend 
their  possessions  from  Canada,  along  the  Mississippi  Valley,  to 
New  Orleans,  and  thence  to  sweep  the  continent  eastward. 
They  seem  to  have  built  a  fort  at  Chicago,  as  a  link  in  their 
great  chain  of  domination.  Canada  was  transferred  to  England 
by  the  victories  of  Wolfe  in*  1759,  and  the  fort  was  then  aban- 
doned. After  the  close  of  the  war  of  ihe  Revolution  the  In- 
dians became  very  troublesome,  owing  to  British  intrigue,  and 
only  after  having  been  effectively  chastised  by  General  Wayne 
did  they  consent  to  a  treaty  of  peace,  in  1795,  the  chiefs  of 
many  tribes  assembling  at  Greenville,  Ohio,  to  sign  the  com- 
pact. Among  the  articles  signed  we  find  one  recording  the 
first  land-sale  in  Chicago,  and  furnishing  the  only  clue  we  have 
to  the  first  erection  of  the  fort  by  the  French.  The  Indians 
ceded  to  the  United  States  "  one  piece  of  land,  six  miles  square, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Chekajo  River,  emptying  into  the  south- 
west end  of  Lake  Michigan,  where  a  fort  formerly  stood." 

It  has  been  facetiously  remarked  that  the  first  white  man 
who  became  a  resident  of  Chicago  was  a  negro.  This  first 
amendment  to  the  copper  color  (whose  race  has  since  risen  to 
the  dignity  of  the  fifteenth  degree)  settled  there  in  1796.  His 
name  was  Jean  Baptiste  Point  au- Sable.  He  built  a  rude  cabin 
on  the  north  bank  of  the  main  "river," and  laid  claim  to  a  tract 
of  land  surrounding  it.  He  disappeared  from  the  scene,  and 
his  claim  was  "jumped"  by  a  Frenchman  named  Le  Mai,  who 
2 


18  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

commenced  trading  with  the  Indians.  A  few  years  later  he 
sold  out  to  John  Kinzie,  who  was  then  an  Indian  trader  in  the 
country  about  St.  Joseph,  Michigan,  nearly  opposite  Chicago, 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake.  Mr.  Kinzie  was  an  agent  of 
the  American  Fur  Company.  They  had  traded  at  Chicago  with 
the  Indians  for  some  time,  and  this  fact  had  probably  more  than 
any  other  to  do  with  the  determination  of  the  Government  to 
establish  a  fort  there.  The  Indians  were  growing  numerous  in 
that  region,  being  attracted  by  the  facilities  for  selling  their 
wares,  as  well  as  being  pressed  northward  by  the  tide  of  emi- 
gration setting  in  from  the  south.  It  was  judged  necessary  to 
have  some  force  near  that  point  to  keep  them  in  check,  as  well 
as  to  protect  the  trading  interest.  Louisiana  was  purchased 
from  the  French  in  180.3,  giving  to  the  United  States  the  con- 
trol of  the  entire  Mississippi  Valley.  In  1804  a  fort  was  built 
by  the  Government,  named  "Fort  Dearborn,"  in  honor  of  a 
general  of  that  name,  and  garrisoned  with  about  fifty  men  and 
three  pieces  of  artillery.  Mr.  Kinzie  removed  his  family  to 
the  place  the  same  year,  and  improved  the  Jean  Baptiste  cabin 
into  a  tasteful  dwelling.  His  son,  John  H.,  but  a  few  months 
old  at  the  time  of  the  removal,  subsequently  became  one  of  the 
most  prominent  men  of  the  city. 

For  about  eight  years  things  rolled  along  smoothly.  The 
garrison  was  quiet,  and  the  traders  were  prosperous,  the  num- 
ber of  the  latter  having  been  considerably  increased.  Then  the 
United  States  became  involved  in  trouble  with  Great  Britain, 
which  finally  broke  out  into  the  war-flame.  The  Indians  took 
the  war-path  long  before  the  declaration  of  hostilities  between 
the  two  civilized  nations.  On  the  7th  of  April,  1812,  they 
made  an  attack  on  one  of  the  outlying  houses,  and  killed  and 
soalped  the  only  maid  resident,  then  descended  toward  the  fort, 


FORT  DEARBORN.  19 

but  refrained  from  making  an  attack,  finding  that  the  soldiers 
were  ready  to  give  them  a  warm  reception.  For  some  months 
they  continued  to  harass  and  rob  the  outside  settlers.  The 
Government  finally  decided  to  abandon  the  fort,  as  it  was  too 
remote  from  headquarters  to  be  successfully  maintained  in  a 
hostile  country.  On  the  7th  of  August,  1812,  Captain  Heald, 
the  commander,  received  orders  to  evacuate  the  fort,  if  prac- 
ticable ;  and,  in  th'at  event,  to  distribute  all  the  United  States 
property  among  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood.  He  hesitated 
for  five  days,  knowing  that  a  special  order  had  been  issued  by 
the  War  Department  to  the  effect  that  no  fort  should  be  surren- 
dered "without  battle  having  been  given."  He  then  reluc- 
tantly decided  to  comply,  as  his  little  force  of  seventy-five  men 
was  evidently  unable  to  cope  with  the  Indians. 

On  the  12th  instant  the  Indians  assembled  in  council,  and 
Captain  Heald  informed  them  that  he  would  distribute  among 
them,  on  the  next  day,  all  the  ammunition  and  provisions,  as 
well  as  the  other  goods  lodged  in  the  United  States  factory,  on 
condition  that  the  Pottawatomies  would  furnish  a  safe  escort 
for  him  and  his  command  to  Fort  Wayne,  where  they  should 
receive  a  further  liberal  reward.  The  Indians  acceded  to  these 
terms,  but  Mr.  Kinzie,  who  had  learned  the  treachery  of  Indian 
character  by  long  experience,  afterward  prevailed  on  Captain 
Heald  to  destroy  all  the  liquor  and  the  ammunition  not  needed 
by  the  troops  on  the  journey. 

The  next  day  the  blankets,  calicoes,  and  provisions  were  dis- 
tributed as  agreed  upon,  and  in  the  evening  the  liquors  were 
thrown  into  the  water,  with  all  the  ammunition,  except  twenty- 
five  rounds,  and  one  box  of  cartridges.  They  also  broke  up  all 
the  spare  muskets  and  gun-fixtures,  and  threw  them  into  the  well. 
60  much  liquor  was  thrown  into  the  river  that  the  Indians 


20  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

drank  largely  of  the  water,  saying  that  it  was  almost  as  good 
as  "  grog." 

The  next  morning  Captain  Wells,  a  relative  of  Captain 
Heald,  arrived  from  Fort  Wayne  with  fifteen  friendly  Miamis. 
In  the  afternoon  another  council  was  held,  at  which  the  Potta- 
watomies  professed  to  be  highly  indignant  at  the  destruction 
of  the  whisky  and  ammunition,  and  made  numerous  threats, 
which  plainly  showed  their  murderous  intention,  only  too  well 
carried  out  on  the  ensuing  day.  On  the  morning  of  the  15th 
(August,  1812),  the  troops  left  the  fort.  Mrs.  Kinzie,  with  her 
family  of  four  children,  two  domestics,  and  two  Indians,  took  a 
boat,  intending  to  cross  the  lake  to  St.  Joseph,  but  remained  at 
the  mouth  of  the  harbor  during  the  subsequent  carnage,  then 
returned  to  their  home.  The  military  party  went  southward, 
intending  to  march  round  the  head  of  the  lake.  They  had  only 
proceeded  about  a  mile  and  a  half,  when  they  were  attacked  by 
a  party  of  Indians,  who  were  concealed  by  a  sand-ridge,  whom 
they  charged  and  dislodged  from  the  position ;  but  the  Indians 
were  so  numerous  that  a  party  of  them  were  able  to  outflank 
the  soldiers,  and  take  the  horses  and  baggage.  A  severe  fight 
followed,  in  which  the  number  of  the  soldiers  was  reduced  to 
twenty-eight;  and  during  that  action  a  young  savage  toma- 
hawked the  entire  party  of  twelve  children,  who  were  in  the 
baggage- wagon.  Captain  Heald  then  withdrew  his  troops,  and 
a  parley  ensued,  the  consequence  of  which  was  that  the  troops 
surrendered,  on  condition  that  their  lives  should  be  spared,  and 
were  marched  back  to  the  fort,  which  was  plundered  and  burned 
the  next  day.  Mr.  Kinzie  did  duty  as  surgeon,  extracting  the 
bullets  with  his  pen-knife. 

Accounts  vary  somewhat  as  to  whether  the  Indians  kept  faith 
in  their  agreement,  some  charging  that  they  massacred  the  chil- 


RE-OCCUPATION.  21 

dren  and  some  of  the  \vomen  after  the  surrender.  We  believe 
the  facts  to  have  been  as  above  stated.  The  total  number  of 
killed  was  fifty-two,  which  included  twenty-six  soldiers,  twelve 
militiamen,  two  women,  and  twelve  children.  The  prisoners 
were  ransomed  some  time  afterward,  the  Kinzie  family  being 
taken  across  the  lake  to  St.  Joseph  and  thence  to  Detroit,  a 
few  days  after  the  massacre. 


IV.    RE-OCCUPATION. 

FOR  four  years  the  place  was  deserted  by  all  save  the  In- 
dians. Even  the  fur-traders  did  not  care  to  visit*  the 
scene  of  so  much  disaster,  and  Chicago  seemed  to  have  been 
remanded  into  aboriginal  darkness.  In  1816,  the  fort  was 
rebuilt,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Bradley,  and  was 
thereafter  occupied  continuously  by  United  States  troops  for 
twenty-one  years,  except  for  a  short  time  in  1831.  In  1837, 
it  was  abandoned,  as  the  Indians  had  been  removed  far'to  the 
westward.  The  fort  stood,  however,  till  1856,  when  the  old 
block -house  was  demolished.  Its  position  was  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  river,  just  east  of  the  place  where  Rush  Street  Bridge 
was  afterward  built.  One  old  building,  however,  remained, 
almost  rotten  with  age,  till  the  great  conflagration  swept  it 
away,  as  the  last  relic  of  military  rule.  It  was  a  small  wooden 
structure  that  had  formed  a  part  of  the  officers'  quarters,  and 
stood  almost  in  the  apex  of  the  sharp  corner  formed  by  the 
meeting  of  Michigan  Avenue  with  River  Street. 

But  the    rebuilding   of  the  fort  failed  to  re-establish   the 
entente    cordiate  that  had   existed  between  the   Indians  and 


22  CHICAGO   AND  THE  GREAT  COXFLAGiiATION. 

whites  previous  to  the  spring  of  1812.  Mr.  Kinziedid  not  re- 
turn till  some  time  after  the  fort  was  reconstructed.  Gurdon 
S.  Hubbard,  Esq.,  who  is  still  a  resident  of  Chicago  at  the 
date  cf  this  writing,  visited  the  place  in  1818,  as  agent  of  tho 
American  Fur  Company,  of  which  John  Jacob  Astor  was 
then  president.  He  came  in  a  small  schooner,  which  was  sent 
there  once  a  year  with  provisions  for  the  garrison.  On  his 
arrival  he  found  only  two  families  on  the  site  of  the  future  city, 
outside  the  fort.  John  Kinzie  lived  on  the  north  side  of  the 
river,  nearly  on  the  line  of  Michigan  Avenue;  and  Antoine 
Oulimette,  a  French  trader,  who  had  married  an  Indian  woman, 
resided  on  the  same  side,  about  two  blocks  further  west.  J.  B. 
Beaubien  arrived  about  the  same  time.  In  1823,  one  more 
white  resident  appeared  on  the  scene,  Archibald  Clybourne, 
who  established  himself  about  three  miles  from  the  fort,  on  the 
north  branch.  In  1827,  he  built  a  slaughter-house  and  entered 
into  business  as  butcher  for  the  fort.  He  has  resided  in  Chicago 
ever  since  then,  and  was  alive  very  recently.  In  the  same  year 
the  place  was  visited  by  Major  Long,  on  a  Government  explor- 
ing expedition,  who  drew  a  sorry  picture  of  the  place,  which 
then  only  contained  three  families,  all  occupying  log  cabins. 
He  said,  in  his  subsequent  report,  that  Chicago  presented  no 
cheering  prospects,  and  contained  but  a  few  huts,  "  inhabit- 
ed by  a  miserable  race  of  men,  scarcely  equal  to  the  In- 
dians from  whom  they  had  descended,"  while  their  houses  were 
"low,  filthy,  and  disgusting,  displaying  not  the  least  trace  of 
comfort."  His  opinion  of  the  site  as  a  place  for  business  was 
equally  poor.  He  spoke  of  it  as  "  affording  no  inducements  to 
the  settler,  the  whole  amount  of  trade  on  the  lake  not  exceeding 
the  cargoes  of  five  or  six  schooners,  even  at  the  time  when 
the  garrison  received  its  supplies  from  the  Mackiuao,"  How 


THE  CANAL.  23 

wonderfully  the  aspect  of  the  place  changed,  within  half  a  cen- 
tury from  the  time  of  Major  Long's  visit,  has  been  written 
with  a  pen  of  iron — the  record  graven  so  deeply,  that  not  even 
the  great  conflagration  could  efface  it. 


V.    THE    CANAL. 

project  to  connect  the  Mississippi  River  with  Lake 
-•-  Michigan,  by  a  canal  from  the  lake  to  the  Illinois  River, 
was  the  real  cause  of  the  up-growth  of  Chicago.  The  com- 
mercial advantages  of  the  site  as  the  terminus  of  that  avenue 
of  water  communication,  first  attracted  attention  to  Chicago, 
and  led  to  the  gathering  of  a  most  important  community  long 
before  the  canal  was  completed,  or  even  begun.  The  measure 
was  first  agitated  as  a  needed  means  of  connection  between 
the  southern  part  of  the  State  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  much 
shorter  than  that  afforded  by  the  Mississippi — a  secondary 
consideration  being  the  great  value  of  a  ship  canal,  connecting 
the  two  great  water-courses  of  the  continent,  in  case  of  another 
war  with  a  European  power.  That  measure,  designed  f<3r  the 
benefit  of  the  south,  then  the  only  settled  part  of  the  State, 
has  resulted  in  attracting  to  the  northern  portion  a  tide  of 
emigration,  and  an  abundance  of  capital,  that  has  thrown  the 
southern  counties  into  a  comparative  shade,  though  ministering 
largely  to  their  development. 

The  canal  project  was  agitated  as  early  as  the  year  1814, 
the  measure  being  urged  in  the  presidential  message  to  the 
Thirty-seventh  Congress,  and  reported  on  by  the  military  com- 


24  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

mittee,  and  the  select  committee  on  the  deepening  the  great 
lakes  and  rivers,  the  latter  body  styling  it  "  the  great  work  of 
the  age"  for  military  and  commercial  purposes.  Governor 
Bond,  of  Illinois,  pressed  it  upon  the  attention  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, in  the  very  first  gubernatorial  message  ever  delivered  in 
the  State — in  1818.  His  successor,  Governor  Coles,  also  urged 
its  importance  in  1822 ;  and  an  act  was  passed  in  February  (14) 
1823,  appointing  a  Board  of  Inspectors,  who  made  a  tour  of 
inspection  in  the  year  following.  On  the  30th  of  March, 
1822,  Congress  had  passed  an  act,  by  which  the  State  was 
authorized  to  make  the  survey  through  the  public  lands,  and 
reserving  ninety  feet  on  each  side  of  the  canal  from  any  sale 
made  by  the  United  States.  It  was  conditioned,  however, 
that  if  the  State  did  not  survey,  and  within  three  years  direct 
the  canal  to  be  opened,  or  if  the  canal  should  not  be  completed 
within  twelve  years,  that  the  grant  should  be  void.  The  com- 
missioners surveyed  five  routes,  and  made  estimates  of  the 
cost  of  the  work;  the  highest  was  $716,610. 

On  the  13th  of  January,  1825,  the  Legislature  passed  an 
act  incorporating  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  Company, 
with  a  capital  of  one  million  dollars,  but  no  one  was  found 
willing  to  take  the  stock,  and  the  charter  was  subsequently  re- 
pealed. The  matter  was  again  taken  up  by  Congress,  princi- 
pally through  the  exertion  of  Hon.  Daniel  P.  Cook,  from  whom 
was  afterward  named  the  county  in  which  Chicago  is  situated. 
Congress  granted  to  the  State  every  alternate  section  in  a  belt 
of  land  six  miles  wide  on  each  side  of  the  proposed  canal,  pro- 
vided that  the  work  should  be  commenced  within  five  years, 
and  completed  within  twenty  years;  otherwise  the  State  should 
pay  to  the  United  States  all  the  money  received  for  lands 
previously  sold.  On  the  22d  of  January,  1829,  the  State  pass- 


THE   TOWN  OF  CHICAGO.  26 

ed  an  act  providing  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  might  be  required  to  effect  the  required 
communication  between  the  river  and  the  lake.  These  com- 
missioners were  directed  to  select  the  State  lands,  and  to  sell 
them  where  they  thought  proper  to  do  so,  and  to  lay  off  cer- 
tain parts  into  town  lots.  This  was  the  commencement  of  the 
system  of  land  grants,  which  has  since  been  so  extensively 
adopted  in  the  United  States,  and  upon  this  action  was  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  future  city  of  Chicago. 


VI.    THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO. 

"TTNDER  the  direction  of  the  commissioners,  James  Thomp- 
^^  son  proceeded,  in  1829,  to  Chicago,  which  then  consisted 
only  of  Fort  Dearborn.  Jle  made  a  survey  of  the  site,  and 
the  first  map  of  the  city  was  prepared  by  him ;  it  bears  date 
August  4,  1830. 

The  canal  was  not  commenced  till  1836,  and  the  year  1848 
had  arrived  before  it  was  completed,  and  then  on  a  much  in- 
ferior plan  to  that  at  first  proposed,  but  the  effect  was  wonder- 
ful. The  benefits  of  the  measure  were  long  antedated  by  the 
enterprising  people,  who  saw  that  the  completion  of  the  work 
would  establish  a  mighty  commercial  depot  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan ;  indeed,  they,  and  those  who  came  after  them,  have 
always  been  noted  for  the  rapidity  with  which  they  could  dis- 
count the  advantages  of  an  event  long  before  its  occurrence,  i 
As  only  one  out  of  many  instances  of  this,  we  may  here  note 
the  fact  that  the  expected  greater  demand  for  breadstuffs  dur- 
ing the  war  between  France  and  Germany,  in  1870,  caused  her 


26  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

grain-markets  to  touch  a  much  higher  point  before  the  declara- 
tion of  war  than  at  any  time  after  the  event,  and  the  price  of 
wheat  in  Chicago  actually  fell  almost  steadily  during  the  entire 
time  that  the  war  was  in  progress.  So  with  the  canal.  The 
place  had  grown  to  the  dimensions  of  a  city  before  the  fir&t 
sod  was  turned,  and  fell  into  the  slough  of  despond  long  before 
it  was  finished.  But  we  anticipate. 

The  tide  of  emigration  had  set  westward,  to  a  limited  extent, 
during  the  agitation  of  the  canal  measure,  but  the  settlement 
of  the  West  was  retarded  by  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  who 
were  particularly  restless  in  1828,  murdering  several  emigrants 
and  menacing  the  fort  with  destruction.  A  large  military  force, 
under  General  Atkinson,  restored  order.  The  country  was  fill- 
ing up  to  the  westward,  as  the  fertility  of  the  rich  prairies  be- 
came known  to  the  people  of  the  East  and  of  Europe.  But 
the  site  of  Chicago  was  still  as  barren  and  uninviting  as  when 
visited  by  Major  Long  in  1823.  Niar  the  fort,  and  again  near 
the  junction  .of  the  two  branches  with  the  main  river,  the  land 
was  relatively  high ;  but  between  those  points,  and  all  around, 
was  a  low,  wet  prairie,  only  a  few  inches  above  the  lake-level, 
and  subject  to  inundation  with  every  shower.  An  early  writer 
says  that  it  "scarcely  afforded  good  walking  in  the  driest  sum- 
mer weather,  while  at  other  seasons  it  was  absolutely  impassa- 
ble." Another,  who  visited  Chicago  at  even  a  later  date,  tells 
how  he  passed  over  the  ground  from  the  fort  to  the  junction 
of  th?  river  with  its  branches, on  horseback,  and  was  up  to  the 
stir/ups  ip  water  the  whole  distance.  He  said:  "I  would  not 
hare  given  sixpence  an  acre  for  the  whole  of  it."  For  a  long 
time  the  usual  mode  of  communication  between  these  two  points 
was  by  canoe,  the  "road"  being  too  marshy  for  traveling. 

Of  course  such  a  site  was  barren  of  agricultural  promise,  and 


THE  TOWN   OF   CHICAGO.  27 

required  strong  faith  in  its  commercial  future  to  tempt  the  set- 
tler to  brave  the  poverty  and  malarial  sickness  that  threatened 
to  starve  him  out  while  waiting  for  the  realization  of  his  hopes. 
It  is  no  wonder  that,  in  1829,  when  Surveyor  Thompson  began 
his  labors,  he  found  only  seven  families  there,  outside  the  fort. 
TVo  of  these,  Mr.  Kinzie  and  his  brother-in-law,  Dr.  Wolcott, 
the  Indian  agent,  lived  on  the  north  side  of  the  river;  John 
Beaubien  lived  on  the  south  side,  near  the  fort,  and  John  Mil- 
ler kept  a  log  tavern  near  the  fork,  besides  which  three  or  four 
Indian  traders,  whose  names  have  not  been  preserved,  lived  in 
what  is  now  the  West  Division.  Mr.  Hubbard  was  not  then  a 
resident;  he  was  frequently  there  for  several  weeks  at  a  time, 
but  did  not  locate  permanently  till  1833. 

The  first  map  of  the  future  city  (August  4,  1830)  only  em- 
braced an  area  of  about  three-eighths  of  a  square  mile,  the 
boundaries  being  Madison,  Desplaines,  Kinzie,  and  State  Streets. 
The  ground  east  of  State,  since  known  as  the  Fort  Dearborn 
Addition  to  Chicago,  was  a  Government  reservation. 

The  next  step  in  the  work  of  preparation  for  future  occupancy, 
was  the  organization  of  Cook  County,  March  4,  1831,  the  limits 
of  which  included  the  whole  tract  now  comprising  the  counties 
of  Cook,  Dupage,  Lake,  McHenry,  Will,  and  Iroquois.  Chi- 
cago is  nearly  midway  on  the  eastern  border  of  the  present 
county.  Two  companies  of  troops  then  occupied  the  fort.  In 
this  year  the  number  of  male  citizen  residents  had  increased  to 
fifteen,  including  the  Government  blacksmith,  and  Billy  Cald- 
well,  the  Indian  chief,  who  acted  as  interpreter  for  the  agency. 
Not  less  than  three  of  these  kept  tavern.  Among  the  new 
arrivals,  those  who  subsequently  figured  prominently  in  the 
history  of  the  city,  were  George  W.  Dole,  merchant;  R.  A.  Kin- 
zie, merchant;  P.  F.  W.  Peck,  merchant;  Dr.  Harmon,  land 


28  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

speculator,  and  Mark  Beaubien,  tavern-keeper.  Besides  these, 
Russell  E.  Heacock  resided  three  or  four  miles  up  the  south 
branch  of  the  river,  and  Archibald  Clybourne  on  the  north 
branch. 

In  this  year  (1831)  emigration  set  in  so  vigorously  that  by 
midsummer  all  the  available  buildings  in  the  city  were  crowded 
with  families,  and  several  were  obliged  to  seek  accommodations 
at  the  fort,  though  many  of  those  arriving  intended  to  proceed 
further  west.  So  great  was  the  pressure  that  the  infant  Court 
of  County  Commissioners  felt  called  upon  to  legislate  for  the 
protection  of  travelers,  and  ordered  that  tavern-keepers  should 
only  charge  twenty-five  cents  for  each  half  pint  of  wine,  rum, 
or  brandy ;  twelve  and  a  half  cents  for  half  a  pint  of  whisky ; 
twelve  and  a  half  cents  for  o"ne  night's  lodging,  and  twenty- 
five  cents  for  breakfast  or  supper.  No  less  than  four  additional 
taverns  were  opened  that  year;  licenses  were  granted  to  three 
persons  to  practice  as  merchants,  and  James  A.  Kinzie  was  pro- 
moted to  the  dignity  of  auctioneer.  His  first  official  act  was  to 
sell,  in  July,  a  portion  of  the  ten  acres  previously  deeded  to 
the  county  of  Cook,  of  which  the  present  Court-house  square 
is  a  part.  He  received  a  county  order  for  $14.53f  in  payment 
for  his  services. 

In  the  latter  part  of  September,  1831,  about  four  thousand 
Indians  assembled  in  Chicago  to  receive  the  Government  an- 
nuity, which  was  paid  by  Colonel  T.  J.  V.  Owen.  The  terror 
of  the  residents  at  the  scenes  of  drunkenness  and  debauchery 
that  followed  the  payment,  was  deepened  by  the  rumor  that  a 
deputation  of  Sauks  and  Foxes,  belonging  to  the  band  of  the 
notorious  Black  Hawk,  was  present,  endeavoring  to  unite  the 
Ottawas,  Pottawatomies,  and  Chippewas,  to  join  in  an  invasion 
of  the  Rock  River  country  and  drive  out  the  white  settlers. 


THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO.  29 

Their  design  was  thwarted  by  the  chief,  Billy  Caldwell,  who 
used  all  his  influence  in  favor  of  peace. 

The  lake  commerce  of  1831  was  quite  large,  not  less  than 
three  vessels  arriving  during  the  year,  one  of  which  came  to 
carry  away  the  troops  to  Green  Bay.  The  others  were  the  Tel  - 
egraph,  from  Ashtabula,  Ohio,  and  the  Marengo,  from  Detroit; 
the  former  brought  a  stock  of  goods,  as  well  as  many  emigrants. 

The  fort  had  been  vacated  by  the  soldiers  in  June,  leaving  it 
free  for  occupancy  by  the  emigrants,  of  whom  about  four  hun- 
dred took  up  their  quarters  there  in  September.  Most  of  these 
stayed  there  through  the  winter,  which  was  a  long  one,  and  so 
bitterly  cold  that  most  of  the  other  residents  of  the  place  also 
took  refuge  in  the  fort,  for  the  double  purpose  of  companion- 
ship and  protection — the  latter  not  more  from  the  Indians  than 
from  the  prairie-wolves,  which  were  very  numerous.  The  only 
communication  they  had  with  the  outside  world  was  effected  by 
a  half-breed  Indian,  who  visited  Niles,  Michigan,  once  in  two 
weeks,  on  foot,  and  brought  in  whatever  papers  he  could  pro- 
cure— there  were  few  letters  in  those  days.  The  long  winter 
evenings  were  "improved"  by  a  debating  society,  occasional 
dances,  and  a  weekly  religious  meeting,  on  the  Methodist  plan. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  in  1831  the  first  ferry  was  established 
across  the  river — there  were  then  no  bridges.  Mark  Beaubien 
filed  a  bond  of  §200  to  carry  all  citizens  of  Cook  County  across 
the  river  free,  on  condition  that  he  should  be  permitted  to  take 
toll  from  those  not  resident  in  the  county. 

Early  in  1832,  Chicago  was  startled  by  the  intelligence  that 
Black  Hawk,  with  a  party  of  five  hundred  braves,  was  ad- 
vancing on  the  settlements  on  Rock  River.  Soon  thereafter, 
people  came  flocking  in  from  that  district  to  seek  refuge, 
their  houses  having  been  fired,  and  their  stock  taken  by  the 


30  CHICAGO    AND   THE   GIIEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

•. 

Indians.  By  the  middle  of  May  there  were  fully  seven  hun- 
dred people  in  the  fort,  two  thirds  of  whom  were  women  and 
children,  many  of  the  men  having  driven  their  stock  farther 
south,  in  search  of  a  more  favorable  location.  A  "  council " 
was  now  called,  at  which  the  Indians  at  first  seemed  anxious 
to  join  the  marauders,  but  finally  consented  to  send  out  one 
hundred  braves  against  them,  if  desired. 

In  May  a  force  of  twenty-five  men  was  organized  at  the 
fort,  under  command  of  Captain  J.  B.  Brown,  to  scour  the 
country.  They  were  joined  by  a  force  of  three  thousand  mili- 
tia, and  a  detachment  of  regular  troops  from  Rock  Island,  un- 
der command  of  General  Atkinson.  The  Indians  were  finally 
routed,  and  Black  Hawk  delivered  up  a  prisoner  of  war,  on 
the  twenty-seventh  of  August,  1832.  In  September,  a  treaty 
was  concluded  at  Fort  Armstrong  (Rock  Island),  by  which  the 
Indians  agreed  to  remove  west  of  the  Missouri,  on  condition 
that  they  should  receive  an  annuity,  and  that  a  reservation 
of  forty  miles  square  should  be  set  off  to  Keokuk,  their  prin- 
cipal chief.  /.^  .,, 

General  Winfield  A.  Scott  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  the 
West,  to  take  part  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  The  cholera  at- 
tacked the  soldiers  on  the  lake,  and  so  many  were  prostrated 
that  a  large  number  were  landed  at  Fort  Gratiot,  now  Port 
Huron.  The  remainder  proceeded  to  Chicago,  where  they 
communicated  the  infection  both  to  the  garrison  and  the  peo- 
ple outside.  The  war  was  ended  by  the  volunteers  before 
General  Scott  could  take  part  in  the  conflict,  but  he  carried 
back  with  him  such  glowing  accounts  of  the  place  that  general 
attention  was  attracted  to  it,  and,  chiefly  through  his  recom- 
mendation, Congress  subsequently  made  the  first  appropriation 
for  the  improvement  of  the  harbor. 


THE   TOWN   OF   CHICAGO.  1 

The  autumn  of  this  year,  1832,  witnessed  the  commence- 
ment of  the  packing  trade  in  Chicago.  Mr.  Dole  erected  the 
first  frame  building,  and  immediately  afterward  began  the 
slaughtering  of  two  hundred  cattle,  which  he  had  bought  on 
the  Wabash  River,  at  two  and  three-quarter  cents  per  pound 
The  same  winter  he  slaughtered  three  hundred  and  fifty  hogs, 
for  which  he  had  given  three  cents  per  pound,  live  weight. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  business,  for  which  Chicago  after- 
ward became  as  famous  as  for  her  grain  and  lumber  trade. 
She  surpassed  Cincinnati  in  the  total  exhibit  of  hogs  slaugh- 
tered, in  the  winter  of  1862-3,  and  up  to  the  time  of  the 
great  catastrophe  had  steadily  kept  in  the  advance  of  that 
city,  wresting  from  her,  and  retaining,  the  right  to  be  called 
the  world's  Porkopolis. 

The  year  1832  was  marked  by  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
population  and  importance  of  the  city.  Among  the  new 
citizens  who  afterward  became  prominent,  were  Dr.  Kiinberly, 
Philo  Carpenter,  J.  S.  Wright,  G.  W.  Snow,  and  Dr.  Max- 
well. South  Water  Street  was  formally  extended  to  the  lake, 
across  Government  property,  from  State  Street  eastward,  and  a 
road  was  surveyed  to  give  communication  with  the  southern 
part  of  the  State.  The  first  Sunday-school  was  organized  in 
August,  by  Philo  Carpenter  and  Captain  Johnson,  with  thir- 
teen children  ;  and  Rev.  Jesse .  Walker,  a  missionary  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  built  a  log  hut  west  of  the  fort, 
for  divine  worship.  This  place  was  called  "  Wolf  Point,"  and 
an  intense  rivalry  sprung  up,  about  this  time,  between  the 
dwellers  there  and  those  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort.  The 
good  people  never  dreamed,  at  that  epoch,  that  the  population 
of  Chicago  would  be  more  than  enough  to  make  up  a  respect- 
able sized  village,  and  each  place  was  anxious  to  become 


32  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

the  site  of  that  village,  when  it  should  have  attained  to  the 
dwarfish  growth  which  was  the  utmost  limit  of  their  expecta- 
tions. 

Of  course  there  was  then  no  Court-house.  The  sessions  of 
the  County  Commissioners,  and  of  the  Circuit  Court,  were 
generally  held  in  the  fort.  The  first  building  erected  on  the 
public  square  was  an  estray  pen,  put  up  in  1832,  on  the  south- 
western corner,  at  a  total  cost -of  twelve  dollars.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  total  tax  list  of  the  entire  county  was 
returned  by  th£  sheriff  this  year  at  $148.29,  of  which  amount 
$10.50  was  uncollectable.  The  treasurer's  report  for  the  year 
ending  April  25,  1832,  shows  the  receipt  of  $225.50  for 
licenses,  and  a  balance  in  hand  of  $15.93.  But  though  poor, 
the  county  was  not  in  debt ;  those  were  happy  days  compared 
with  the  present,  when  the  great  calamity  has  piled  up  an 
enormous  loss  on  the  top  of  a  city  debt  of  fourteen  and  a  half 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  next  year,  1833,  the  place  grew  apace.  An  appropria- 
tion of  thirty  thousand  dollars  was  made  by  Congress  for  the 
improvement  of  the  harbor,  and  work  was  at  once  commenced 
At  that  time  the  main  channel  was  narrower  than  now,  and 
instead  of  running  in  an  almost  straight  line  into  the  lake,  it 
turned  short  to  the  southward,  round  the  fort,  to  a  point  near 
the  present  foot  of  Madison  Street,  and  there  connected  with 
the  lake  over  a  bar  of  sand  and  gravel,  the  water  on  which  was 
about  fifteen  yards  wide,  and  only  a  few  inches  in  depth. 
Vessels  arriving  at  the  port  were  obliged  to  anchor  outside,  and 
discharge  or  take  on  cargo  by  the  aid  of  boats.  A  channel 
was  cut  through  the  bank,  running  straight  out  into  the  lake, 
an  embankment  formed  to  cut  off  the  water  from  the  former 
channel,  a  pier  run  out  to  a  short  distance  on  the  north  side  of 


THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO.  S3 

the  new  mouth,  and  a  light-house  built  to  mark  the  entrance 
to  the  new-formed  harbor.  In  the  following  spring,  a  great 
freshet  washed  out  more  sand  from  the  channel  than  had 
been  removed  by  the  dredges,  but  at  the  same  time  it  swept 
away  some  six  hundred  feet  of  piling  that  had  just  be»n 
built  to  protect  the  south  shore.  It  was  now  believed  thai  a 
permanent  harbor  had  been  gained,  which  would  never  more 
be  choked  up.  Subsequent  experience  has  shown  the  fallacy 
of  this  hope,  as  continuous  expenditures  have  been  necessitated 
to  keep  open  a  passage  for  vessels.  Further  appropriations 
were  made,  of  §32,800  in  1835;  of  $32,000  in  1836;  and 
$40,000  in  1838,  and  work  was  suspended  for  a  long  time  after 
the  last-named  sum  had  been  exhausted. 

This  was  but  one  of  the  many  extensions  made  in  1833.  A 
jail  was  built  "  of  logs,  firmly  bolted  together,"  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  Court-house  square,  which  stood  there  for 
just  twenty  years,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  Court-house. 
The  first  regular  postmaster  was  appointed,  in  the  person  of 
J.  S.  C.  Hogan,  the  keeper  of  a  variety  store  on  South  Water 
Street,  though  a  gentleman  named  Bailey  is  reported  to  have 
previously  officiated  in  that  capacity.  Mr.  Hogan's  office  is 
currently  reported  to  have  been  graced  with  a  number  of  old 
boot-legs,  nailed  up  against  the  wall,  which  did  duty  as  private 
boxes  for  such  of  the  citizens  as  were  honored  with  the  most 
extensive  correspondence.  This  year,  too,  was  marked  by  the 
establishment  of  nc  less  than  three  church  societies.  The  First 
Presbyterian  was  organized  June  26th,  with  a  membership  of 
nine  citizens  and  twenty-five  members  of  the  garrison,  by  Rev. 
Jeremiah  Porter,  who  was  Chaplain  of  a  detachment  of  United 
States  troops  that  came  from  Green  Bay  early  in  the  year. 
The  First  Baptist  Church  was  organized  on  the  10th  of  Octo- 


34  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

her,  with  a  membership  of  fourteen,  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Freeman; 
and  Rev.  Mr.  Schaffer  commenced  the  erection  of  a  Catholic 
church-edifice,  which  was  completed  the  following  year.  The 
Methodists  also  held  their  first  quarterly  meeting  in  the  au- 
tumn, with  John  Sinclair  as  Presiding  Elder. 

Another  memorable  event  of  1833  was  a  gathering  of  about 
seven  thousand  Pottawatomie  Indians,  on  the  27th  of  Septem- 
ber, at  which  a  most  important  treaty  was  made.  The  chiefs 
met  the  Government  commissioners  in  council,  in  a  large  tent 
on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  opposite  the  fort,  and  formally 
ceded  to  the  United  States  all  their  territory  in  Northern  Illi- 
nois and  Wisconsin,  amounting  to  about  twenty  millions  of 
acres,  for  the.  sum  of  $1,100,000.  They  received  as  first  pay- 
ment about  $56,000  in  money,  and  $130,000  in  goods;  the 
remainder  they  were  to  receive  in  instalments,  covering  a  period 
of  twenty-five  years.  It  is  reported  that  not  less  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  goods  were  stolen  by  the  Indian 
traders  during  the  first  two  nights,  after  the  owners  had  been 
liberally  saturated  with  whisky,  for  which  they  had  paid  out  a 
large  proportion  of  the  articles  furnished  them.  A  letter  from 
a  traveler,  who  witnessed  the  scenes,  was  unearthed  and  pub- 
lished in  the  Tribune  in  1869.  We  are  sorry  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  files  of  that  paper  in  the  great  conflagration  prevents 
us  from  reproducing  it.  The  description  there  given  of  the 
disgusting  revels  of  the  red  men,  and  the  rapacity  of  the  whites, 
was  almost  enough  to  make  one  lose  faith  in  human  nature. 

The  great  event  of  the  year  was,  however,  the  incorporation 
of  Chicago  as  a  town.  A  public  meeting  was  held  August  5th, 
to  decide  whether  the  important  step  should  be  taken  or  not. 
A  total  of  twelve  votes  were  cast  for  the  measure,  and  one 
against  it,  the  negative  being  our  old  friend  of  the  South 


THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO.  35 

Branch  settlement — Russell  E.  Heacock.  An  election  was  held 
on  the  10th  of  the  same  month,  at  the  house  of  Mark  Beaubien, 
the  original  Charon  of  the  place,  who  was  also  noted  as  the 
keeper  of  two  fast  horses ;  and  we  give  the  following  as  the  list 
of  voters  on  the  occasion,  which  probably  comprised  every 
legal  voter  in  the  place,  except  one,  as  Heacock  resided  outside ; 
about  six  others  had  arrived  just  previous  to  the  election,  who 
were  afterward  voters :  E.  S.  Kimberly,*  J.  B.  Beaubien,  Mark 
Beaubien,  T.  J.  V.  Owen,*  William  Ninson,  Hiram  Pearsons, 
Philo  Carpenter,  George  Chapman,  John  S.  Wright,  John  T. 
Temple,  Matthias  Smith,  David  Carver,  James  Kinzie,  Charles 
Taylor,  J.  S.  C.  Hogan,  Eli  A.  Rider,  Dexter  J.  Hapgood,  G. 
W.  Snow,  Madore  Beaubien,*  Gholson  Kercheval,  G.  W.  Dole,* 
R.  J.  Hamilton,  Stephen  F.  Gale,  Enoch  Darling,  W.  R.  Adams, 
C.  A.  Ballard,  John  Watkins,  James  Gilbert — in  all  twenty- 
eight  votes.  The  four  marked  with  a  star,  and  John  Miller, 
were  elected  Trustees  of  the  Town.  Mr.  Owen  was  elected 
President. 

The  following  statistics  of  the  new-born  corporation  will  be 
of  interest: 

Area  of  the  town,  about    .        .        .        .  »     .        .        .    560  acres 
Number  of  inhabitants,      .        .        .        .        .        .        .     550 

Number  of  voters, 29 

Number  of  buildings, 175 

Valuation  of  property, $60,000  00 

Valuation  of  taxable  property, 19,560  00 

First  year's  taxes, 48  90 

The  business  of  the  year  included  the  packing  of  500  or  600 
head  of  cattle,  and  nearly  3,000  hogs,  at  the  slaughter-house  of 
Mr.  Clybourne,  of  which  250  head  of  cattle  and  1,000  hogs 
were  packed  by  Mr.  Dole. 


36  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

The  first  important  public  improvement  ordered  by  the  new 
trustees  was  the  establishment  of  a  second  ferry  across  the  river, 
the  point  chosen  being  at  Dearborn  Street.  They  next  extended 
the  limits  of  the  town  to  take  in  an  area  of  about  seven-eighths 
of  a  square  mile.  The  new  boundaries  were  Jackson  Street  on 
the  south,  Jefferson  and  Cook  Streets  on  the  west,  Ohio  Street  on 
the  north,  State  Street  on  the  east,  from  Jackson  to  the  river,  and 
the  lake-shore  on  the  north  side,  from  the  river  to  Ohio  Street, 

Of  course  so  important  a  place  could  not  exist  long  without 
a  newspaper,  and  accordingly  we  find  that  John  Calhoun  issued, 
on  the  26th  of  November,  1833,  the  first  number  of  the  Demo- 
crat, which  was  also  the  first  newspaper  ever  published  in  North- 
ern Illinois.  The  early  files  of  that  journal  are  full  of  inter- 
esting matter;  even  the  advertisements  speak  volumes,  for  they 
tell  of  the  way  in  which  business  was  transacted  in  those  days. 
There  was  not  much  done,  except  by  way  of  exchange  in  goods 
and  produce,  while  land  bought  was  largely  paid  for  in  prom- 
ises. In  the  first  number  the  editor  strongly  advocated  the 
prosecution  of  the  work  on  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  as 
the  one  great  means  necessary  to  the  growth  of  the  city. 

During  the  summer  of  1833  not  less  than  160  frame  houses 
were  erected,  and  the  number  of  stores  was  increased  from 
five  or  six  to  25.  Among  the  new  buildings  was  the  Green 
Tree  Tavern,  by  J.  H.  Kinzie,  which  was  the  first  structure 
ever  erected  in  the  place  for  that  purpose ;  its  predecessors  were 
simply  private  residences,  thrown  open  to  the  public  for  a  con- 
sideration. Among  the  arrivals  we  find  the  names  of  S.  B. 
Cobb,  Walter  Kimball,  Star  Foote,  S.  D.  Pierce,  Manoel  Talcott, 
John  D.  Caton,  Hibbard  Porter,  Franklin  Bascom,  E.  H.  Had- 
duck,  Thomas  H.  Woodworth,  and  J.  K.  Botsford. 

The  year  1834  witnessed  the  establishment  of  closer  commer- 


THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO.  37 

cial  relations  with  other  points  east  and  west.  The  second 
week  in  April  a  schooner  arrived  from  St.  Joseph,  and  two 
cleared  for  the  same  port.  On  the  30th  of  the  same  month 
the  corporation  organ  announced  that  emigration  had  fairly  set 
in,  as  more  than  »  hundred  persons  had  arrived  by  boat  and 
otherwise  during  the  preceding  ten  days.  On  the  4th  of  June 
the  Democrat  announced  that  arrangements  had  been  made  by 
the  proprietors  of  the  steamboats  on  Lake  Erie,  whereby  Chi- 
cago would  be  visited  by  a  steamboat  once  a  week  till  the  25th 
of  August.  On  Saturday,  July  llth,  the  schooner  Illinois,  the 
first  large  vessel  that  ever  entered  the  river,  sailed  into  the  har- 
bor amid  great  acclamations,  the  sand  having  been  washed  away 
by  the  freshet  of  the  spring  previous.  In  its  issue  of  Septem- 
ber 3d,  the  paper  stated  that  150  vessels  had  discharged  their 
cargoes  at  the  port  of  Chicago  since  the  20th  of  April  preced- 
ing. The  total  number  of  votes  polled  in  the  whole  of  Cook 
County  this  year  was  528.  The  poll-list  of  Chicago  had  in- 
creased to  111,  out  of  a  population  of  400,  besides  200  soldiers 
in  the  fort.  It  is  noteworthy  that  not  less  than  13  of  the  111 
were  candidates  for  office  at  the  August  election. 

In  the  spring  of  1834,  a  stage  communication  was  opened 
np  l>et\veen  Chicago  and  the  country  to  the  westward,  by  means 
of  J.  T.  Temple's  line  for  St.  Louis.  The  route  to  Ottawa 
was  piloted  out  by  John  D.  Caton,  who  had  previously  been 
over  the  unmarked  road  on  horseback.  A  bitter  storm  sprung 
up,  and  the  driver  was  obliged  to  resign  his  post;  he  died 
afterward  from  that  day's  exposure  to  the  cold.  Mr.  Caton, 
afterward  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State, 
took  the  stage  through  to  Ottawa,  where  a  better  system  of 
roads  began,  the  first  settlement  of  the  State  having  been  from 
the  southward,  as  already  stated. 


38  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

The  autumn  of  this  year  was  marked  by  two  historical  events 
of  interest.  About  four  thousand  Indians  assembled  there  in 
October,  to  receive  thirty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods,  as 
the  first  annuity  paid  after  the  treaty  by  which  they  had  ceded 
their  lands  to  the  Government.  The  goods  were  distributed 
just  west  of  the  river,  near  the  line  of  what  is  now  Randolph 
Street.  The  scene  was  simply  disgusting,  and  several  of  the 
Indians  were  killed  in  a  drunken  brawl.  The  other  event  was 
a  grand  hunt.  A  large  black  bear  was  seen  on  the  morning 
of  October  6th,  in  a  strip  of  timber  on  the  corner  of  Market 
and  Jackson  Streets,  almost  exactly  on  the  spot  where  the 
armory  was  afterward  built.  He  was  shot;  then  the  citizens 
got  up  a  grand  wolf  hunt  in  the  same  neighborhood,  and  killed 
no  less  than  forty  of  those  animals  before  nightfall.  It  was 
just  at  this  point,  thirty-seven  years  after,  almost  to  a  day, 
that  the  flames  leaped  across  the  river  from  the  West  Division, 
and  thence  swept  northward  to  the  limits  of  the  city. 

In  this  year  a  draw-bridge  was  built  across  the  river  at 
Dearborn  Street;  active  measures  were  taken  to  prevent  the 
spread  of  the  cholera,  and  a  committee  was  authorized  to  build 
a  cholera  hospital  outside  the  town  if  the  disease  should  make 
its  appearance;  the  first  Sunday  liquor  law  was  passed  (Sep- 
tember 1st) ;  the  large  sum  of  forty  dollars  was  paid  for  repair- 
ing bridges ;  and  the  town  was  divided  into  four  wards,  by  an 
ordinance  intended  to  prevent  fires.  Prior  to  this  year  all 
the  stores  were  located  on  South  Water  Street;  indeed,  Lake 
Street,  and  all  the  streets  southward  of  it,  only  existed  on 
paper.  In  the  autumn  of  1834,  Thomas  Church  erected  a  store 
on  Lake  Street,  which  was  soon  the  busiest  in  the  whole  town. 
The  packing  statistics  of  the  year  show  that  Mr.  Clybour  le 
packed  600  cattle,  and  more  than  3000  hogs;  while  Messrs. 


INFLATION.  39 

Newberry  &  Dole  slaughtered  some  400  cattle  and  1400  hogs 
in  a  packing  house  of  their  own,  recently  built  on  the  south 
branch.  The  same  year  Gurclon  S.  Hubbard  packed  5000 
hogs,  on  the  corner  of  Lake  and  Lasalle  Streets. 

Among  the  prominent  arrivals  of  1834  we  note  the  names 
of  F.  C.  Sherman,  James  Grant,  A.  E.  Webster,  Thomas 
Church,  Wm.  Jones,  and  Grant  Goodrich.  The  first  water- 
works of  the  future  city  was  established  about  this  time,  the 
sum  of  $95.50  being  paid  for  the  digging,  stoning,  and  stone 
of  a  well,  in  Kinzie's  addition,  on  the  north  side. 


VII.   INFLATION. 

year  1835  was  a  most  remarkable  one  in  the  history 
-*-  of  Chicago.  It  was  preeminently  the  epoch  of  specula- 
tion. Colonel  E.  D.  Taylor  and  James  Whitlock  arrived  in 
the  spring,  and  opened  a  United  States  Land  Office  on  the  1st 
of  June,  over  Thomas  Church's  store  on  Lake  Street.  The 
rush  was  immense.  They  sold  over  half  a  million  dollars' 
worth  of  property  in  the  first  six  months,  and  the  sales  were 
almost  as  great,  correspondingly,  through  the  next  year.  The 
extent  to  which  the  speculative  mania  raged,  drawing  people 
from  far  and  near,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  first 
census  of  the  place,  a  statement  of  which  was  published  in  the 
Democrat  of  November  25,  1835,  shows  that  the  town  then 
contained  3265  inhabitants,  and  the  county  9773.  The  popu- 
lation had  been  multiplied  by  eight  in  a  single  year.  The  peo-- 
pie  were  wild  during  the  summer,  and  the  records  of  the  town 


40  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

show  that  the  authorities  were  almost  at  their  wit's  ends,  pass- 
ing huge  ordinances,  and  as  quickly  repealing  them,  to  meet 
the  exigencies  continually  presented  by  such  a  rapid  influx  of 
people  to  be  governed  and  provided  for.  In  the  winter  things 
were  worse.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  talk  of  the  price 
of  corner  lots,  and  this  inexhaustible  subject  was  discussed 
again  and  again  in  private  houses,  and  in  the  hotels,  where 
hundreds  of  men  strutted  around  like  conscious  millionaires, 
but  without  the  where-with-all  to  pay  for  a  week's  board. 
Every  body  grew  rich — on  paper — as  the  selling  prices  of  real 
estate  multiplied  even  more  rapidly  than  the  population.  The 
whole  country  was  aflame  with  magnificent  schemes  of  internal 
improvement,  in  which  the  future  canal  figured  only  as  an  item. 
These  schemes  were  not  put  into  legal  shape  till  a  year  or  two 
afterward,  bnt  the  speculators  were  already  at  work  cutting 
jp  the  State  into  little  chess-board  squares,  to  be  checkered  by 
railroads,  every  one  of  which  was  to  bring  untold  millions  of 
wealth  into  the  great  commercial  emporium  of  the  North-west, 
while  they  and  the  canal  should  give  employment  to  tens  of 
thousand  of  workers.  It  is  due  to  the  projectors  of  these  mag- 
nificent schemes  to  say  that  nearly  every  one  of  them  has  since 
been  carried  out.  The  great  fault  was  that  they  wanted  to  go 
ahead  too  fast.  They  commenced  to  build  before  the  structure 
was  wanted,  and  by  working"  a  quarter  of  a  century  ahead  of 
their  generation,  brought  down  untold  misery  on  the  heads  of 
millions  in  the  commercial  panic  that  swept  over  the  whole 
land  at  a  subsequent  date. 

As  the  culminating  point  of  most  of  these  improvements, 
Chicago  was  the  Mecca  of  speculators — a  genuine  El  Dora- 
do, where  every  one  could  make  his  fortune  by  simply  juy- 
ing  a  few  lots,  and  selling  out  at  an  advance  before  the  ink 


INFLATION.  41 

had  dried  with  which  the  first  transfer  was  recorded.  Hence, 
although  large  quantities  of  money  were  attracted  hither,  it 
did  little  good.  It  was  all  invested  in  lots,  and  most  of  the 
cash  immediately  found  its  way  into  the  national  treasury. 
And  as  all  these  speculators  invested  the  whole  of  their  "  pile," 
they  had  nothing  left  wherewith  to  pay  their  way.  There  was 
really  little  inducement  to  invest  in  business,  as,  although  the 
country  to  the  westward  was  rapidly  filling  up,  the  farmers 
had  not  arrived  at  the  point  where  they  had  surplus  produce 
to  dispose  of  for  cash,  or  to  exchange  for  goods.  But  the 
speculators  saw  that  the  good  time  was-coming,  and  discounted 
the  situation  fully  fifteen  years  ahead. 

From  June  to  December,  the  sales  at  the  United  States  Land 
Office  aggregated  370,043  acres,  for  which  $505,729  was  re- 
ceived, most  of  the  property  being  in  Chicago  and  its  neigh- 
borhood. But  these  figures  fail  to  convey  even  a  faint  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  land  speculation.  The  lots  were  sold  and 
presold,  each  time  at  a  large  advance  on  the  former  price,  every 
body  dealing,  and  all  making  money  as  rapidly  as  a  shoddy 
contractor  in  the  early  days  of  the  rebellion. 

The  hotel  accommodations  of  the  year  increased  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population.  Besides  the  Green  Tree  Hotel,  on  the 
corner  of  Lake  and  Canal  Streets,  there  were  now  three  others. 
The  Tremont  House  had  been  erected  a  year  previously,  on 
the  north-west  corner  of  Lake  and  Dearborn,  and  the  loungers 
of  that  day  used  to  stand  on  its  steps  and  shoot  the  ducks  on 
the  river,  or  on  the  slough  that  lay  before  the  door.  Starr 
Foote  was  the  first  landlord,  but  he  speedily  gave  way  to  Ira  « 
Couch,  under  whose  management  the  Tremont  soon  became 
head-quarters  for  the  travelers  and  speculators  with  which  the 
town  abounded.  It  was  burned  down  in  1839,  in  the  second 


42  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

fire  that  had  visited  the  place,  the  first  having  occurred  in 
1834.  The  Graves  (log)  Tavern  stood  nearly  opposite  the 
Tremont,  and  the  Saganash  Hotel  offered  accommodations  for 
man  and  beast,  on  the  corner  of  Market  and  Lake  Streets,  the 
spot  where  Lincoln  was  nominated  in  1860  for  the  presidency. 
At  that  date  the  grove  of  timber  along  the  east  side  of  the 
eouth  branch  was  still  undisturbed,  the  north  division  was 
thickly  studded  with  trees,  a  few  pines  stood  on  the  lake  shore 
south  of  the  harbor,  the  timber  being  thickest  near  the  river, 
and  a  great  pine  tree  stood  near  the  foot  of  Randolph  Street. 

By  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  approved  February  11,  1835, 
all  the  land  east  of  State  Street,  from  Twelfth  Street  to  Chicago 
Avenue,  was  included  within  the  town  line* ;  except  that  it  was 
provided  that  the  Fort  Dearborn  reservation,  lying  between 
Madison  Street  and  the  river,  should  not  belong  to  the  town 
till  vacated  by  the  United  States. 

In  this  year  (June)  occurs  the  first  instance  of  an  attempt  to 
borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  town.  The  treasurer  wa^ 
authorized  to  borrow  $2,000,  at  not  more  than  ten  per  cent,  in- 
terest, and  payable  in  twelve  months.  He  resigned  rather  than 
face  the  novel  responsibility,  and  the  street  commissioner  follow- 
ed suit.  A  Board  of  Health  was  now  appointed,  with  extreme 
powers  in  the  way  of  enforcing  cleanliness  and  prosecuting  of- 
fenders. The  new  Board  of  Trustees,  elected  July  10th,  on  a 
poll  list  of  two  hundred  and  eleven  voters,  prohibited  gaming 
houses,  and  the  sale  of  liquors  on  the  Sabbath ;  forbade  the 
firing  of  guns  and  pistols  within  the  limits,  appointed  police 
constables,  and  exacted  bonds  from  the  officials  of  the  financial 
department  for  the  faithful  performance  of  their  official  duties, 
They  also  selected  ten  acres  as  a  City  Cemetery  on  Chicago 
Avenue,  near  the  lake  shore,  and  sixteen  acres  for  the  same 


INFLATION.  43 

purpose  near  the  corner  of  Wabash  Avenue  and  Twenty-third 
Street.  These  sites  were  both  abandoned  a  few  years  afterward, 
and  are  now  covered  with  buildings.  In  this  year  the  Chi- 
cago American  entered  the  field  to  compete  with  the  Democrat 
for  the  advertising  patronage  of  the  town  and  its  citizens. 

Two  additional  buildings  were  placed  in  the  Court-house 
square  in  1835 — a  small  brick  edifice  on  the  north-east  corner, 
for  the  use  of  the  county  officers  and  the  safe  keeping  of  the 
records,  and  an  engine-house,  costing  §220,  the  latter  not  be- 
ing finished  till  the  following  year.  The  first  fire  engine  was 
bought  December  10th,  of  Messrs.  Hubbard  &  Co.,  for  the  sum 
of  $896.38,  and  a  second  ordered.  The  first  Fire-engine  Com- 
pany was  organized  two  days  afterward,  with  the  following 
members:  S.  G.  Trowbridge,  Foreman;  E.  Morrison,  J.  M. 
Morrison,  H.  G.  Loomis,  John  Dye,  Joel  Wicks,  H.  B.  Clarke, 
William  Young,  H.  H.  Magee,  Peter  Warden,  J.  S.  C.  Ho- 
gan,  E.  A.  Neff,  T.  O.  Davis,  H.  M.  Draper,  J.  H.  Mulford, 
Peter  Pruyne,  Ira  Kimberly,  W.  McForresten,  Alvin  Cal- 
houn,  O.  L.  Beach,  M.  B.  Beaubien,  A.  A.  Markle,  .A.  V. 
Knickerbocker,  S.  W.  Paine,  S.  C.  George,  E.  Peck,  H.  C. 
Pearsons,  George  Davis,  William  H.  Clark,  J.  C.  Hamilton, 
John  Calhoun,  D.  S.  Dewey,  Hugh  C.  Gibson.  A  Hook  and 
Ladder  Company  was  also  organized,  as  follows :  John  Wil- 
son, E.  C.  Brackett,  John  Holbrook,  T.  Perkins,  S.  F.  Spal- 
ding,  Ira  Cook,  George  Smith,  J.  J.  Garland,  J.  K.  Palmer, 
P.  F.  W.  Peck,  T.  S.  Eells,  Joseph  L.  Hanson,  S.  B.  Cobb, 
J.  A.  Smith,  John  R.  Langston,  Henry  G.  Hubbard,  Thomas 
J.  King,  N.  L.  F.  Monroe,  J.  K.  Botsford,  George  W.  Snow, 
G.  W.  Merrill,  Joseph  Meeker,  S.  S.  Lathrop,  Thomas  S. 
Hyde,  and  Jason  McCord.  Hiram  Hugunin  was  elected 
Chief  Engineer. 


44  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

On  the  14th  of  November  the  Board  of  Town  Trustees  re- 
solved to  sell  the  leases  of  the  wharfing  privileges  in  the  town 
for  the  term  of  999  years,  binding  the  board  to  dredge  the  river 
to  the  depth  of  ten  feet  at  least,  within  four  years  from  the  sale, 
and  the  lessees  of  the  privileges  being  bound  to  erect  good  docks, 
five  feet  wide  and  three  feet  above  the  water,  within  two  years 
from  the  date  of  the  lease.  The  sale  of  those  immensely  val- 
uable privileges  took  place  on  the  26th  of  November,  1835,  at 
the  store  of  Messrs.  Jones,  King  &  Co.,  and  it  may  be  interest- 
ing to  remember  now  the  "minimum  prices"  at  which  owners 
of  lots  fronting  the  river  had  the  privilege  of  buying.  On 
South  Water  Street  the  price  was  $25  per  front  foot;  on  North 
Water  Street,  $18.75  per  front  foot;  on  West  Water  Street,  $18 
per  front  foot.  The  men  who  got  rich  in  buying  such  property, 
at  such  prices,  deserve  no  credit  for  speculative  ability.  But 
the  board,  on  the  18th  of  November,  1835,  offered  still  further 
assistance  in  their  new  school  of  "  affluence  made  easy."  They 
then  resolved  that  they  would  not  be  bound  to  dredge  the  river, 
in  making  leases  on  North  Water  Street,  consequently  they  low- 
ered the  minimum  figure  to  $15  per  front  foot,  in  part,  and 
$8.50  per  front  foot  on  the  remainder  of  the  line.  To  aid  in 
paying  for  leases  at  this  rate,  the  board  took  secured  notes  for 
three  and  six  months, for  the  first  payment  of  one-quarter  of  the 
price,  and  gave  three  years  in  which  to  pay  off  the  balance. 
The  sale  was  three  times  postponed,  and  while  waiting  for  a 
sale  all  the  picked  lots  seemed  to  have  been  taken  at  a  min- 
imum price.  When  the  vendue  did  take  place,  only  six  lots 
remained  to  be  sold,  and  but  one  of  these  found  a  purchaser, 
.at  $26  per  front  foot.  The  city  will  have  the  right  to  resume 
possession  of  these  valuable  lots  on  the  26th  day  of  November, 
A.  D.  2834.  The  "  privileges "  thus  thrown  away  by  a  lot  of 


INFLATION.  45 

men  who  ought  to  have  known  better,  subsequently  became 
matter  of  much  anxious  legislation  on  the  part  of  the  board, 
and  with  the  sale  of  the  magnificent  school-lands,  made  Octo- 
ber 21,  1833,  on  a  petition  signed  by  twenty-three  citizens, 
form  the  two  great  sores  in  the  history  of  the  city.  Both  were 
literally  "sold  for  a  mere  song."  The  school-lands,  sold  for 
§38,865,  have  since  been  worth  nearly  fifty  millions. 

The  official  seal  was  adopted  in  November,  1835 — a  spread- 
eagle,  having  three  arrows  in  his  claws, and  the  words  "United 
States  of  America"  surrounding  the  same. 

Prominent  among  the  new  residents  added  in  1835,  were, 
Tuthill  King,  Alonzo  Huntingdon,  J.  Y.  Scammon,  W.  *B. 
Ogden,  C.  V.  Dyer,  C.  L.  Wilson,  George  Manniere,  and  H.  O. 
Stone.  Among  the  departures  we  note  about  fifteen  hundred 
Indians,  who  left  the  place  on  the  first  of  October,  with  forty  ox- 
teams,  and  traveled  forty  days  toward  the  lands  allotted  to  them 
west  of  the  Missouri,  by  the  treaty  of  1833.  The  party  in- 
cluded all  that  remained  of  the  "noble  red  man"  in  Northern 
Illinois,  and  the  State  has 'ever  since  been  unmolested  by  the 
Indians. 

There  were  fewer  additions  to  the  population  in  1836  than 
in  1835,  the  total  of  dwellers  in  the  latter  year  being  only  about 
4,000.  Among  the  new-comers  were,  Laurin  P.  Billiard, 
Mark  Skinner,  N.  B.  Judd,  John  Wentworth,  M.  W.  Windette, 
W.  A.  Baldwin,  B.  W.  Raymond,  Walter  Wright,  J.  M.  Van 
Osdel,  E.  S.  Wadsworth,  Julius  Wadsworth,  Thomas  Dyer,  L. 
D.  Boone,  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  and  Dr.  D.  S.  Smith. 

But  the  speculative  fever  still  raged  among  the  people,  and 
they  began  to  aspire  to  the  dignity  of  a  city,  which  was  granted 
the  next  year,  in  answer  to  their  prayer.  There  were  two 
notable  events  in  the  history  of  1836.  The  first  was  the  launch 


46  CHICAGO  AND   THJbJ   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

of  the  sloop  Clarissa,  on  May  18th,  the  first*  vessel  ever  built  iu 
Chicago — an  event  that  was  celebrated  with  great  rejoicing. 
The  second  was  the  turning  of  the  first  sod  in  the  excavation 
of  the  canal,  which  was  performed  at  Bridgeport,  the  Chicago 
terminus,  on  the  fourth  of  July;  a  loan  of  half  a  million  dol- 
lars foi  the  purpose  having  been  authorized  by  the  Legislature, 
and  successfully  negotiated.  In  July  the  commissioners  adver- 
tised for  2,000  men  to  work  on  the  canal  at  twenty  to  thirty 
dollars  per  month.  Meanwhile  the  improvement  of  the  harbor 
was  proceeded  with  so  vigorously  that  vessels  could  move  freely 
in- and  out  of  the  river.  Another  packing-house  was  also  built 
this  year,  by  Sylvester  Marsh,  on  Kinzie  Street,  near  Rush. 
He  packed  hogs  there  till  1853. 

A  good  deal  was  effected  this  year  in  the  way  of  city  improve- 
ments, and  much  more  would  have  been  effected  but  for  the 
fact  that  the  town  authorities  were  snubbed  in  their  efforts  to 
obtain  a  loan  of  $25,000  from  the  State  Bank  for  these  pur- 
poses. Several  buildings  were  removed  from  the  streets,  where 
they  had  been  located  promiscuously,  and  thus  several  thor- 
oughfares were  brought  into  line.  Plank  sluices  were  con- 
structed across  Clark  Street  to  carry  the  drainage  to  the  south 
branch.  Canal  Street  was  turnpiked  as  far  north  as  Kinzie, 
and  Lake  and  Randolph  were  similarly  improved  to  the  dis- 
tance of  several  blocks  west  of  the  river.  Among  the  improve- 
ments prospected  and  not  carried  out  were  the  bridges  at  Ran- 
dolph and  Kinzie  Streets,  and  the  establishment  of  a  system  of 
water  supply  through  pipes,  by  a  hydraulic  company,  incorpo- 
rated this  year.  The  water  wants  of  the  citizens  were  hitherto 
supplied  by  carts,  and  the  same  primitive  method  was  continued 
for  four  years  longer. 

The  corporation  tax  on  real  estate  amounted  to  $8,998  28, 


THE  CITY.  47 

and  in  this  year  we  find  the  first  mention  of  lots  being  sold  to 
make  good  delinquencies  on  the  tax  list. 

This  year  was  the  last  in  the  township  history  of  Chicago, 
and  we  therefore  present  the  following  summary  of  marine 
statistics,  showing  the  commercial  growth  of  four  years: 

Year.  Vessels  arrived.  Tonnage. 

1833  4  700 

1834  ..-..        176       ....         5,000 

1835  ....        250        ....        22,500 
•1836         ....        456        ....        60,000 

In  the  same  time  the  value  of  the  real  and  personal  property 
of  this  city  had  grown  from  little  more  than  zero  to  an  aggre- 
gate of  nearly  one  million  dollars. 


VIII.    THE    CITY. 

IN  1837  Chicago  became  a  city.  It  was  incorporated  by  act 
of  the  Legislature,  passed  March  4th,  which  extended  the 
limits  to  include  an  area  of  about  ten  square  miles.  It  was 
bounded  as  follows:  On  the  south  by  Twenty-second  Street; 
on  the  west  by  Wood  Street ;  on  the  north  by  North  Avenue ; 
on  the  east  by  the  lake,  except  the  fraction  of  section  ten,  occu- 
pied as  a  military  post ;  it  included,  in  addition,  the  ground  on 
the  lake  shore  lying  east  of  Clark  Street,  extending  half  a  mile 
north  of  North  Avenue,  since  occupied  as  the  old  city  cemetery. 
The  city  was  divided  into  six  wards,  each  of  which  was  em- 
powered to  elect  two  aldermen. 


48  CHICAGO  AND   THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

A  school  act  had  been  passed  in  February,  1835,  providing 
for  the  annual  election  of  school  inspectors  and  trustees,  and 
giving  power  to  enforce  a  tax  of  not  more  than  one-half  per 
cent,  per  annum  for  school  purposes.  The  act  of  municipal  in- 
corporation constituted  the  Common  Council  as  commissioners 
of  public  schools,  with  power  to  appoint  a  board  of  school  in- 
spectors annually.  Under  this  regime  Thomas  Hoyne  and 
Calvin  De  Wolf  were  engaged  as  school  teachers;  but  very 
little  was  done  in  the  way  of  tuition  till  1840,  on  account  of 
the  general  poverty. 

The  first  charter  election  resulted  in  the  election  of  the  fol- 
lowing officers : 

4 
Mayor — Wm.  B.  Ogden. 

High  Constable — John  Shrigley. 

First  Ward — Aldermen,  J.  C.  Goodhue,  -Francis  Sherman  ; 
Assessor,  Nathan  H.  Bolles. 

Second  Ward — Aldermen,  J.  S.  C.  Hogan,  Peter  Bolles; 
Assessor,  E.  A.  Tuder. 

Third  Ward — Aldermen,  J.  D.  Caton,H.  Hugunin;  Assessor, 
Solomon  Taylor. 

Fourth  Ward — Aldermen,  A.  Pierce,  F.  H.  Taylor;  Asses- 
sor, Wm.  Forsyth. 

Fifth  Ward — Alderman,  Bernard  Ward;  Assessor,  Henry 
Cunningham. 

Sixth  Ward — Aldermen,  S.  Jackson,  H.  Pearson ;  Assessor, 
S.  D.  Pierce. 

N.  B.  Judd  was  chosen  City  Attorney. 


THE   COLLAPSE.  49 

The  following  were  the  principal  statistics  of  the  new  city : 

Population  in  1837,  July  1st,        .  .        4,170 

Number  of  voters,          .....  .  703 

Area  of  city,  square  miles,    .......  10 

Number  of  buildings, 492 

Taxable  valuation  (J),   . $236,842 

City  taxes, $5,905 

The  population  included  513  under  5  years  of  age;  831  over 
5  and  under  21  years;  and  2445  persons  over  21  years  of  age; 
the  latter  class  contained  1800  males  and  845  females.  In  ad- 
dition to  these  were  104  sailors  belonging  to  Chicago-owned 
vessels,  and  77  colored  persons. 

The  list  of  buildings  comprised  4  warehouses,  398  dwellings, 
29  dry  goods  stores,  5  hardware  stores,  3  drug  stores,  19  gro- 
cery and  provision  stores,  10  taverns,  29  groceries,  17  lawyers' 
offices,  and  5  churches.  Several  of  the  buildings  appear  in 
more  than  one  class. 

Among  the  new  arrivals  of  1837  were  Peter  Page,  \V.  H. 
Bradley,  Thomas  Hoyne,  C.  N.  Holden,  and  C.  C.  P.  Holden. 
The  next  year  witnessed  the  arrival  of  E.  I.  Tinkham  and  H. 
T.  Dickey.  F.  A.  Hoffman  arrived  in  1839. 


IX.   THE   COLLAPSE, 

FOR  a  long-time  this  was  the  culmination  of  Chicago's  great- 
ness    A  few  months  passed  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  newly 
acquired  dignity,  and  then  came  the  well-remembered  crash  of 
1837,  which  operated  with  peculiar  force  upon  the  city,  as  she 
5 


50  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

was  largely  filled  with  speculators  in  real  estate,  whose  hopes 
vanished  when  prices  began  to  fall.  For  two  years  prices  of 
real  estate  had  mounted  upward  like  a  kite  in  a  gale  of  wind, 
stimulated  by  the  bidding  of  the  ever  advancing  throng.  Pur- 
chases were  made,  almost  universally  on  time,  and  when  the 
people's  currency  went  down  it  was  apparent  that  there  \Yaa 
nothing  to  pay  with.  The  tide  of  emigration  was  stopped, 
and  many  left  the  city,  while  very  many  other  large  owners 
(?)  of  real  estate  were  unable  to  pay  their  board  bills,  and  staid 
in  the  city  simply  because  they  were  too  poor  to  get  away. 
Nothing  but  ruin  stared  the  people  in  the  face.  A  public 
meeting  was  held  in  the  autumn,  at  which  it  was  proposed  to 
petition  for  relief  laws  against  the  collection  of  debts,  but  the 
project  was,  itself,  repudiated,  and  the  people  were  content  to 
owe  that  which  they  could  not  pay. 

The  direct  cause  of  the  collapse  was,  as  already  indicated, 
the  fact  that  the  nation  had  reached  out  too  fast.  The  Illinois 
Legislature  of  1836-37  had  shared  in  the  general  mania,  au- 
thorizing the  construction  of  some  thirteen  hundred  miles  of 
road  at  once,  on  which  about  five  million  dollars  was  expended 
for  locating  and  grading.  The  moneys  borrowed  for  this  pur- 
pose, for  the  canal,  and  for  other  schemes,  were  all  spent,  long 
before  there  was  any  return.  Production  was  neglected  for 
construction,  and  the  result  was  that  the  west  was  in  debt 
hopelessly,  with  not  even  money  enough  to  pay  the  interest  as 
it  became  due.  The  banks  had  generally  been  built  on  the 
same  unstable  foundation  of  credit,  and  were  the  first  to  go 
under  when  the  first  shock  came  that  showed  a  want  of  confi- 
dence. The  second  State  bank,  chartered  by  the  Legislature 
in  the  winter  of  1834-5,  established  a  branch  in  Chicago  in 
December,  1835,  which  flourished  like  a  green  bay  tree,  till  the 


THE  COLLAPSE.  51 

panic  came.  It  then  suspended  specie  payments,  but  continued 
to  do  business  till  1841,  when  it  finally  suspended ;  and  for  the 
ten  succeeding  years  there  was  not  a  bank  of  any  kind  in  the 
whole  State. 

Under  these  distressing  circumstances,  Chicago  was  utterly 
stagnated  for  about  five  years,  each  succeeding  twelve  month? 
witnessing  a  further  reduction  in  pecuniary  values,  with  no 
augment  of  population.  The  work  on  the  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan Canal  was  slowly  proceeded  with,  in  spite  of  the  financial 
troubles,  and  despite  also  the  fact  that  a  terrible  fever  broke 
out  among  the  laborers  on  the  canal,  and  extended  to  the  city, 
carrying  them  off  by  scores.  The  Canal  Commissioners  had 
been  empowered,  in  March,  1837,  to  sell  as  many  town  lots  in 
Chicago  and  elsewhere,  as  might  be  necessary  to  produce  a 
million  dollars.  Many  sales  were  made,  and  the  money  ap- 
plied as  designated.  In  July,  of  the  same  year,  they  were 
further  empowered  to  sell  lots  to  the  value  of  $400,000,  and  to 
enlarge  the  natural  basin  at  the  confluence  of  the  north  and 
south  branches  of  the  river.  The  persistency  with  which  the 
canal  project  was  sustained  was  probably  all  that  prevented 
Chicago  from  sinking  back  into  original  nothingness.  In  1840, 
the  official  valuation  of  real  estate  had  fallen  to  §94,437, 
and  the  city  taxes  to  §4,722.  The  next  year  work  was  sus- 
pended on  the  canal,  and  the  situation  became  more  gloomy 
than  ever,  real  estate  being  offered  at  less  than  five  per  cent, 
of  the  price  paid  in  1836.  A  general  bankrupt  act  was  passed 
in  1842,  and  then  there  was  a  slow  revival  till  the  middle  of 
the  century  was  reached. 

The  history  of  the  city  during  the  five  years  succeeding  the 
crash  presents  but  few  points  of  interest,  and  those  all  of  a 
melanci.oly  character.  Most  of  the  people  settled  down  into  a 


52  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

gloomy  despondency  over  the  failure  of  the  bright  prospect. 
Yet  the  great  majority  even  of  these  showed  that  the  real  grit 
which  led  them  there  had  not  forsaken  them.  They  despaired 
of  seeing  Chicago  take  the  position  of  a  great  commercial  em- 
porium, but  they  set  to  work  to  improve  its  appearance,  mak- 
ing their  cottages  neater,  and  cultivating  the  soil  very  assidu- 
ously, though  the  site  was  really  in  need  of  drainage.  They 
really  made  a>  virtue  of  necessity  in  regard  to  the  latter,  raising 
the  vegetables  and  some  grain  necessary  to  their  sustenance, 
having  no  money  with  which  to  buy  them  from  others.  This 
was  the  horticultural  era,  when  potatoe  hills,  and  cabbages,  and 
flower  belts,  and  onion  beds,  covered  whole  blocks,  since  occu- 
pied by  fine  buildings  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city.  It  was 
during  this  epoch  and  the  few  years  succeeding  it  that  Chicago 
earned  the  title  of  the  "  Garden  City,"  so  often  applied  to  it 
in  recent  years,  with  no  known  reason  on  the  part  of  those 
using  the  term. 

In  1839,  the  year  after  the  canal  fever,  the  city  had  a  popu- 
lation of  4,200  inhabitants,  under  the  mayoralty  of  B.  W. 
Raymond.  The  first  business  directory  of  the  city  ever  pub- 
lished was  brought  out  in  that  year  by  Edward  H.  Rudd,  and 
contained  the  names  of  278  business  firms,  including  lawyers, 
etc.  It  gives  a  list  of  six  churches. 

The  Chicago  American  was  first  issued  as  a  daily,  the  first 
in  Illinois,  April  9th,  of  this  year.  We  extract  from  the 
first  few  numbers  the  following  names  of  mercantile  adver- 
tisers, etc.  The  list  embraces  all  of  those  of  any  moment, 
except  lawyers: 

Dry  Goods  and  Groceries — Goodsell  and  Campbell,  T.  B. 
Carler  &  Co.,  Paine  &  Norton,  O.  H.  Thompson  (and  crock- 
ery), Harmon  &  Loomis  (and  liquors),  B.  W.  Raymond,  Joseph 


THE   COLLAPSE.  53 

L.  Hanson,  George  W.  Merrill,  S.  W.  Goss  &  Co.,  A.  D.  Big- 
gins, C.  McDonnell,  C.  S.  Phillips,  H.  O.  Stone. 

Drugs— E.  Dewey,  L.  M.  Boyce,  W.  H.  &  A.  F.  Clarke 
(and  seeds),  Philo  Carpenter,  S.  Sawyer. 

Hardware,  etc. — S.  T.  Otis  &  Co.,  David  Hatch,  Osborne  & 
Strail,  L.  W.  Holmes. 

Boots  and  Shoes— W.  H.  Adams  &  Co.,  S.  W.  Talmadgo, 
S.  B.  Collins  &  Co.,  Wm.  Osborne.  . 

Auction  and  Commission — Stanton  &  Black,  Marshall  & 
Tew. 

Commission  and  Produce — J.  S.  Wright,  G.  S.  Hubbard  & 
Co.,  McClure  &  Co.,  Kiuzie  (J.  H.)  &  Hunter,  Dodge  &  Tucker, 
Reed  Bartlett. 

Books  and  Stationery — Stephen  F.  Gale,  H.  Ross. 

Lumber,  etc. — Newberry  &  Dole,  G.  W.  Snow  &  Co. 

Provisions — Newberry  &  Dole. 

Day  School— Rev.  I.  T.  Hinton. 

Clothing,  etc. — Tuthill  King,  Paine  &  Norton,  G.  F.  Ran- 
dolph, J.  F.  Phillips,  J.  A.  Smith  &  Co.  (and  hats,  caps,  and 
furs). 

Engraving — S.  D.  Childs. 

Jewelry — S.  J.  Sherwood. 

Harness,  etc. — W.  S.  Gurnee. 

Cabinet  Ware — Bates  &  Morgan. 

Liquors — Isaac  D.  Harmon. 

Hotels— Jacob  Russel  (City),  John  Murphy  (U.  S.),  G.  E. 
Shelley  (Lake),  E.  Gill  (Shakespeare),  Saganash  Hotel. 

Insurance — E.  S.  &  J.  Wadsworth,  David  Hunter. 

In  this  year  the  work  on  the  harbor  was  suspended,  the  last 
appropriation  of  $40,000,  made  in  1838,  having  been  exhausted. 
Lake  Street  lots  were  now  selling  as  low  as  $600  each,  that 


54  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

have  .since  sold  at  $2x500  per  front  foot.  The  general  trouble 
of  the  epoch  may  be  understood  from  the  following  list  of  per- 
sons discontinuing  business,  as  furnished  by  Hon.  Thomas 
Hoyne,  the  city  clerk,  in  a  memorial  to  Coflgress  in  1841,  pray- 
ing for  a  resumption  of  work  on  the  harbor: 

1836— T.  R.  Martin,  dry  goods;  M.  McFarlan,  do.;  William 
Hatch,  do.;  McClure  &  Co.,  crockery ;  Mr.  Howard,  dry  goods; 
Mr.  Bates,  do.;  Mr.  Hogan,  do.;  Chamber  &  Benedict,  do.; 
Chauncey  Clark,  do.;  Mr.  Freer,  do. 

1837 — Walker  &  Brothers,  dry  goods  and  groceries;  Walter 
Kimball,  do.;  Kimball  &  Potter,  do.;  Jones,  King  &  Co., 
hardware;  Joel  Walker,  dry  goods;  Wild,  Maloney  &  Co.,  do.; 
Alfred  Farley,  do.;  Beaubien  &  Boyce,  do.;  Monroe  &  Dun- 
ning, do.;  Guild  &  Durand,  do.;  Jenkins  &  Reynolds,  do.; 
Kinzie,  Davis  &  Hyde,  hardware;  J.  L.  Smith,  dry  goods; 
Rufus  Masten  &  Co.,  do.;  Mr.  Luce,  do.;  J.  B.  Beaubien,  do.; 
Rogers  &  Marcoe,  do.;  John  L.  Wilson,  do.;  J.  &  T.  Handy, 
do.;  Henry  King  &  Co.,  do.;  Walbridge  &  Jordan,  groceries; 
Cheng  &  Johnson,  do.;  Mr.  Brackett,  do.;  Foyke  &  Wright, 
do.;  Montgomery  &  Patterson,  auctioners;  L.  Hunt,  hats  and 
furs;  Hall  &  Monroe,  groceries;  Mark  Beaubien,  dry  goods; 
Caruthers  &  Co.,  do. 

1838 — King,  Walter  &  Co.,  hardware;  Peter  Pruyne,  drugs, 
etc.;  J.  W.  C.  Coffin,  dry  goods;  Vibbard  &  Tripp,  do.;  J. 
Rayner,  do.;  Judge  Smith,  do.;  Thomas  Duncan,  clothing; 
Wheeler  &  Peck,  grocers ;  Noble  &  Rider,  do.;  Parker  &  Gray, 
dry  goods. 

1839 — Mr.  Hatch,  hardware. 

1841 — Mr.  Berry,  dry  goods;  James  Kinzie  &  Co.,  do.; 
Campbell,  Wallace  &  Plumb,  do. 

It  is  true,  however,  and  singularly  enough,  that  it  was  during 


THE  COLLAPSE.  65 

this  very  period  of  depression,  Chicago  commenced  to  achieve 
her  manifest  destiny  as  an  exporting  point.  "While  industry 
was  taking  the  place  of  speculative  idling,  and  the  masses  of  the 
people  were  adding  slowly  to  their  worldly  wealth,  and  a  few 
busy  in  planning  the  schemes  of  improvement  that  made  the 
city  of  1871,  there  were  a  very  few  who  quietly  put  their  shoul- 
ders to  the  wheel  of  commerce.  It  rolled  slowly  for  awhile, 
but  once  fairly  started,  it  acquired  an  impetus  that  nothing 
could  resist.  It  is  true  that  $1,000  worth  of  hides  was  exported 
in  1836,  and  nearly  $12,000  worth  of  hides,  pork,  and  beef  in 
1837,  but  the  grain  movement,  in  which  Chicago  has  attained 
such  a  world- wide  prominence,  only  commenced  in  1838,  the 
year  after  the  panic,  with  a  small  venture  of  39  bags  of  wheat, 
by  Walker  &  Co.,  in  the  steamer  Great  Western,  along  with 
§15,000  worth  of  hides.  Absalom  Funk  shipped  $1,000  worth 
of  beef  and  pork  in  the  same  year.  The  vessel  list  of  1838 
comprised  127  arrivals  of  steamboats,  and  241  of  other  vessels; 
total,  268.  The  steamer  George  W.  Dole  was  now  plying  reg- 
ularly between  the  ports  of  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  Buffalo. 

In  1839  the  number  of  exporters  had  increased  to  eight,  who 
sent  forward  produce  to  the  value  of  $35,843,  including  $15,000 
in  hides,  $11,000  in  provision  products,  and  16,073  bushels  of 
wheat,  besides  corn  and  flour.  In  1840  we  have  not  less  than 
fifteen  firms  noted  as  exporters,  the  material  sent  forward  being 
flour,  wheat,  corn,  pork,  beef,  tallow,  hams,  beans,  salt,  wool,  lead, 
flax-se«Kl,  hides,  and  furs,  with  a  total  value  of  $223,883.  In 
1841  the  list  of  exporters  had  swelled  to  twenty-four,  who  sent 
out  304,212  bushels  of  wheat  and  other  produce,  making  a  grand 
total  of  $350,000.  The  arrivals  and  departures  by  lake  this  year 
were  150.  In  1842  the  flour  and  wheat  shipped  was  the  equiv- 
alent of  586,907  bushels  ,of  wheat.  The  following  table  shows 


56  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

the  value  of  the  imports  and  exports  during  each  yeai  in  the 
period  under  review.  It  will  be  observed  that  in  1842  the  ex- 
ports for  the  first  time  about  equaled  the  imports: 


Tear. 
1836, 

Imports. 

$325,203  90 

Export*. 

$1,000  64 

1837, 
1838, 

373,677  12 
579,974  61 

11,665  00 
16,044  75 

1839, 
1840, 

630,980  26 
562,106  20 

35,843  00 

228,883  00 

1841, 
1842, 

564,347  88 
664,347  88 

350,000  00 
659,805  20 

In  1842  the  population  had  grown  to  6,590  souls,  having 
increased  about  1,000  in  the  preceding  twelve  months.  The 
improvement,  as  compared  with  1837,  will  be  better  understood 
from  the  following  table  of  buildings  in  the  city  in  1842: 

South.  North.  West.  Total. 

Brick  stores,    ...  37  0  0  37 

Frame  stores,  ...  206  10  3  219 

Brick  dwellings,  28  10  3  41 

Frame  dwellings,     .        .  444  278  120  842 

Stone  dwellings,  1  0  0  1 

Other  buildings,       .  —  —  224 


Totals,         .        .  716  298  126  1,364 

In  November,  1840,  the  educational  affairs  of  the  city  seem  to 
have  first  received  systematic  attention.  A  Board  of  Inspect- 
ors of  Schools  was  appointed,  consisting  of  the  following-named 
gentlemen :  William  Jones  (President),  J.  Y.  Scammon,  Isaac 
N.  Arnold,  Nathan  H.  Bolles,  John  Gray,  J.  H.  Scott,  Hiram 
Hugeuin.  Under  this  regime  the  following-named  gentlemen 
served  as  teachers  in  the  Public  Schools,  at  a  salary  of  $33.33 
per  month:  South  Division — A.  G.  IJumsey,  H.  B.  Perkins; 


THE   COLLAPSE.  57 

West  Division — A.  D.  Sturtevant;  North  Division — A.  C.  Dun- 
bar.  It  should,  however,  be  remembered  that  they  taught  in 
none  of  those  elegant  buildings  recently  destroyed  by  the  fire. 
The  first  Public  School  structure  had  yet  to  be  erected  in  Chi- 
cago. 

A  few  sidewalks  were  put  down  during  this  epoch,  and  sev- 
eral other  minor  improvements  of  a  public  character  were 
erected,  but  the  principal  work  was  that  by  which  the  citi- 
zens were  supplied  with  water  through  pipes,  instead  of  being 
obliged  to  buy  it  from  peddlers  at  so  much  per  bucketful. 
The  Hydraulic  Company,  formed  in  1836,  with  a  nominal  stock 
of  $250,000,  commenced  operations  in  1840.  They  built  a  res- 
ervoir at  the  corner  of  Lake  Street  and  Michigan  Avenue,  on 
the  site  since  occupied  by  the  Adams  House,  about  twenty- 
five  feet  square  and  eight  feet  deep,  elevated  about  eighty  feet 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  erected  a  pump,  connect- 
ing it  by  an  iron  pipe  with  the  lake,  laid  on  a  crib- work  pier, 
running  into  the  lake  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  This 
pump  was  worked  by  a  steam-engine  of  twenty-five  horsepower. 
The  water  was  distributed  to  the  citizens  through  logs,  bored 
at  the  "  works,"  five  inches  for  the  main  lines  and  three  inches 
for  the  subordinate  ones.  In  1842  James  Long  entered  into 
arrangements  with  the  Hydraulic  Company  to  do  all  the  pump- 
ing for  the  supply  of  the  city  with  water  for  ten  years,  without 
cost  to  the  company,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  free  use  of 
the  surplus  power  of  their  twenty-five  horse  engine.  In  a  let- 
ter read  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  Lake  Tunnel,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1866,  Mr.  Long  thus  refers  to  the  difficulties  of  the  primi- 
tive situation :  "  In  winter  the  pipes  on  the  pier  would  be  dis- 
arranged by  the  heaving  of  the  frost,  and  I  had  frequently  to 
spend  hours  at  a  time  to  caulk  up  the  joints  by  throwing  on 


58  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

water  and  thus  freezing  up  the  cracks  before  we  could  make  the 
pump  available.  When  the  end  of  this  pipe  from  the  p:er  was 
first  put  down,  it  was  three  or  four  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
lake,  but  in  1842-43  the  lake  had  receded  so  far  as  frequently 
to  leave  the  end  out  of  water,  particularly  when  the  wind  blew 
from  the  south."  But  it  was  soon  found  that  a  large  extension 
was  needed.  Long  before  the  above-named  contract  had  ex- 
pired the  twenty-five  horse-power  engine  had  become  too  small, 
even  without  doing  the  extra  work  expected  of  it. 


X.    GROWING   AGAIN. 

rilHE  growth  of  the  city  from  1842  to  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
-*-  tury  was  slow,  as  measured  by  the  lightninglike  progress 
of  some  subsequent  years,  but  it  was  sure.  The  people  were 
working  on  a  firm  basis,  and  past  reverses  had  made  them  so 
cautious  that  they  were  afraid  to  risk  their  little  capital  in  many 
cases  that  have  since  proven  to  be  first-class  investments.  Many 
city  improvements,  that  had  been  projected  in  more  inflated  but 
less  prosperous  times,  were  now  carried  out,  and,  although  the 
horticultural  epoch  was  still  in  existence,  the  people  were  grad- 
ually paving  the  way  for  an  emergence  from  the  crysalis  con- 
dition. The  place  had  heretofore  been  really  a  village,  though 
nominally  a  city.  There  were  a  few  who  watched  the  gradual 
settlement  of  the  country  to  the  westward,  and  recognized  the 
fact  that  the  magnificent  schemes  of  the  people  must  soon  be 
realized.  These  labored  on  in  the  face  of  great  discouragement, 


G ROWING   AGAIN.  59 

though  the  city  was  filling  tip  rapidly.  The  city  was  growing, 
almost  under  protest;  people  came,  almost  without  knowing  the 
reason  why,  and  with  an  increase  of  population  a  steady  aug- 
ment of  property  values  ensued.  Work  on  the  canal  was  re- 
sumed, and  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  railroad  system, 
which  was  not  wanted  a  few  years  previously,  was  now  a  vital 
necessity. 

The  canal  funds  had  been  kept  distinct  from  the  moneys  bor- 
rowed for  other  improvements,  but  when,  in  1841,  the  State  in- 
debtedness had  amounted  to  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  proceed,  as  enough  money  could  not  be 
raised  to  pay  arrears  to  the  contractors,  though  another  loan  of 
four  million  dollars  had  been  authorized  in  1839.  Hence  the 
work  was  suspended  in  1842,  as  already  stated,  and  the  next 
year  a  law  was  passed  to  settle  the  outstanding  claims  of  the 
contractors,  provided  they  did  not  amount  to  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  million  dollars. 

But  the  canal  was  of  too  much  importance  to  be  long  aban- 
doned. In  1843,  certain  holders  of  the  State  bonds  made  the 
offer  to  advance  the  money  necessary  to  complete  the  canal, 
provided  the  payment  of  their  advances  and  bonds  was  secured 
by  adequate  lien  on  the  canal,  its  lands,  and  its  revenues.  At 
the  next  session  of  the  Legislature  an  act  was  passed,  providing 
that  if  the  bond-holders  would  advance  $1,600,000,  then  the 
canal,  and  the  lands  still  unsold,  amounting  to  about  230,000 
acres,  with  several  lots  in  Chicago  and  towns  along  the  line, 
should  be  pledged  to  the  lenders.  Accordingly  the  lands  and 
revenues  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  three  trustees,  two  jf 
whom  were  to  be  chosen  by  the  bond-holders,  and  one  by  the 
State.  A  great  portion  of  the  loan  was  negotiated  by  Mr. 
Swift,  of  Boston,  with  English  capitalists. 


60  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GKKAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

With  the  money  so  obtained,  work  on  the  canal  was  resumed, 
and  the  undertaking  was  completed  in  1848,  but  not  on  the 
grand  plan  originally  proposed.  The  plan,  as  at  first  adopted, 
was  for  the  canal,  of  ninety-six  miles  long,  from  the  Chicago 
River  to  Lasalle,  to  have  its  highest  level  only  three  feet 
above  the  lake,  this  highest  line  extending  from  Chicago  to 
Lockport.  A  part  of  the  work  was  executed  on  this  plan. 
But  when  operations  were  resumed,  it  was  on  the  shallow  prin- 
ciple, the  highest  level  being  twelve  feet  above  the  lake;  from 
this  level  a  series  of  fifteen  locks  provided  a  descent  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-six  feet  between  it  and  Lasalle.  The  water 
for  the  summit  level  was  supplied  by  pumping. 

Very  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  canal,  its  enlargement  to 
the  originally  designed  scale  was  strongly  advocated.  Indeed, 
a  convention  was  held  in  the  city,  in  1847,  attended  by  dele- 
gates from  all  parts  of  the  country,  at  which  the  importance  of 
the  enlargement  was  referred  to.  Another  canal  convention 
was  held  in  June,  1863,  the  sessions  of  which  were  made 
memorable  by  the  temporary  suppression  of  the  Chicago  Times, 
by  order  of  General  Burnside,  while  the  convention  was  in 
session.  At  that  gathering  the  leading  idea  was  to  provide  for 
the  passage  of  large  vessels,  and  iron-clads,  from  the  lakes  to  the 
Mississippi,  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  The  com- 
mercial needs  of  the  North-west  were  not  forgotten,  but  they 
received  only  a  secondary  share  of  attention.  It  was  even  pro- 
posed to  cut  down  the  summit  level  below  the  depth  originally 
agreed  upon,  in  order  to  allow  the  waters  of  the  lakes  to  run 
through  the  river  and  the  canal,  down  to  the  Illinois,  and  thus 
convert  a  stagnant  bayou  into  a  living  stream.  Various  plans 
for  improvement  were  proposed,  the  estimates  for  which  ranged 


GROWING   AGAIN.  61 

from  eleven  and  a  half  to  thirteen  a  third  million  dollars. 
Some  of  these  plans  proposed  a  change  in  the  route  of  the 
canal,  as  it  is  well  known  that  a  less  amount  of  excavation 
would  have  been  required  on  another  line  which  was  not  chos- 
rn  by  the  locating  commissioners,  for  the  reason  that  the  adja- 
cent lands  were  not  available  for  sale. 

The  total  amount  expended  by  the  commissioners  for  canal 
construction,  under  the  act  of  1836,  was  $4,979,903,  and  under 
(he  act  of  1843,  the  expenditures  were  $1,429,606,  making  a 
total  of  $6,409,509.  The  receipts  from  sales  of  lands,  and 
lots  donated  by  the  United  States  Government,  were  $4,667,- 
718.42,  and  for  tolls,  from  the  opening  to  the  close  of  1868, 
the  receipts  were  $3,997,281.22.  The  total  receipts,  from  all 
sources  up  to  that  date,  were  §10,501,195,  and  the  total  debt 
of  the  State  for  construction  and  maintenance  was  cleared  off 
entirely  when  the  construction  bonds  of  1843—4  fell  due,  in 
1871. 

The  canal  has  since  been  deepened  by  the  city  at  a  total  cost 
of  three  million  dollars,  of  which  more  hereafter.  Now  that 
Chicago  is  the  focus  of  a  grand  system  of  railroads,  the  canal  is 
far  more  valuable  to  her  as  a  sewer  to  carry  off  her  surplus 
filth,  than  as  a  means  of  commercial  communication  with  the 
interior  of  the  State.  But  at  that  time  it  was  the  only  artery 
along  which  the  life-blood  of  commerce  was  expected  to  flow 
for  many  years,  and  it  gave  a  prodigious  impulse  to  the  growth 
of  the  city. 

The  following  statistics  of  a  few  articles  transported  over  the 
canal  during  a  portion  of  1848  (the  year  it  was  opened),  and 
die  whole  of  1849,  will  show  at  a  glance  the  immense  stimulus 
given  by  it  to  Chicago  trade,  which  had  hitherto  been  depend- 


62  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

ent  on  the  wagon  or  the  packhorse  in  that  direction.     The 
movement  of  lumber,  etc.,  was  westward: 


Articles. 

Pork,  Ibs. 
Stone,  cu.  yds.          .        . 

1818. 

683,600 
5,416 

1849. 

2,783,102 
7,995 
7,579 

Wheat,  bu. 

451,876 
516,230 

624,978 
754,288 

72,659 

61,989 

Lumber,  ft.       ... 
Shingles  and  Lath,  No.     . 
Tolls  on  Canal,         . 

.  14,425,357 
.  17,899,000 
$87,891 

26,882,000 
35,551,000 
$118,376 

The  receipts  of  lumber  in  1847  were  32,118,225  feet;  in 
1848,  60,009,250  feet;  in  1849,  73,259,553  feet. 

In  this  connection  we  present  the  following  aggregates  of 
sales  at  the  Chicago  Land  Office,  to  the  middle  of  1847,  when 
the  office  was  closed,  and  previous  to  May  28, 1835,  at  Danville: 


Tears. 

Acres. 

Money. 

To  May, 

1835, 

29,513.44 

$  37,067  73 

1835,  [Chicago] 

.   370,043.38 

505,729  75 

1836, 

.   202,365.96 

252,961  78 

1837, 

15,697.27 

19,622  35 

1838, 

85,891.39 

109,973  34 

1839, 

.   160,635.70 

218,811  69 

1840,   .   . 

.   142,158.20 

177,701  93 

1841,   .   .   . 

.   138,603.16 

173,307  20 

1842, 

.   194,557.11 

243,209  78 

1843, 

.   229,459.70 

284,829  01 

1844, 

.   235,258.36 

294,301  78 

1845, 

.   220,525.08 

275,674  32 

— 

1846,   .   .   . 

.   198,350.41 

247,943  17 

To  June  29, 

1847, 

49,506.53 

61,883  12 

Total 2,272,565.69       $2,903,016  87 


GROWING  AGAIN.  63 

Total,  [brought  forward]  .        .    2,272,565.69       $2,903,016  87 
To  Schools, 104,520.00 


To  Canal 236,680.00 

To  State  purposes,        .        .        .        94,782.00  t 


Donated. 


Total, 2,707,547.69  Acres. 

Unsold, 914,987.31      " 


Total  in  District,       .        .        .    3,624,535.00      " 
Total  in  State,  ....  35,941,602.00      " 

The  influence  of  the  canal  on  the  city  is  very  concisely  shown 
by  the  statistics  of  population.  In  1842  the  inhabitants  num- 
bered 6590;  in  1843  they  had  increased  to  7580,  and  only  to 
about  8000  in  1844.  Work  recommencing  on  the  canal  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  year,  the  population  had  increased  to  12,088 
in  1845,  and  steadily  swelled  afterward  to  20,923  in  1848.  It 
should,  however,  be  remembered  that  the  last-named  total  was 
scattered  over  a  greater  area  than  in  1845.  In  1847  the  city 
was  increased  by  the  addition  of  three  and  a  half  square  miles 
to  its  area,  making  a  total  of  thirteen  and  a  half  sections.  The 
city  limits  were  extended  west  to  Western  Avenue  (three  miles 
from  State  Street),  and  took  in  all  east  of  Sedgwick  Street,  be- 
tween North  and  Fullerton  Avenues. 

The  augment  of  shipment  eastward  was  not  quite  so  great  as 
the  business  of  the  canal,  but  it  was  large  nevertheless.  The 
exhibit  of  valuation  of  city  property,  in  this  period,  shows  the 
steady  character  of  the  growth  with  equal  clearness : 

Property. 

Real,      . 
Personal, 

Total, 
City  Taxes,    . 


1S42. 

$108,757 
42,585 

IMS. 

$2,273,171 
791,851 

184*. 

$4,998,266 
1,302,174 

$151,342 

$3,065,022 
11,018 

$6,300,440 
22,052 

64  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

These  valuations  were  about  one-fourth  of  the  price  at  which 
the  property  could  have  been  sold. 

Chicago  retained  her  horticultural  aspect  during  these  years 
of  improvement,  but  there  was  a  steady  commercial  growth 
quietly  wrought  out  by  a  few  men,  that  seemed  almost  to  take 
the  world  by  surprise  when  communication  had  once  been 
opened  up  sufficiently  to  let  ihat  outside  world  know  what  was 
going  on.  The  harbor  received  some  attention,  but  work  done 
in  accordance  with  the  suggestions  of  George  B.  McClellan, 
submitted  in  1844,  was  of  little  more  value  than  his  exertions 
in  the  early  days  of  the  rebellion.  A  long  line  of  piling  was 
driven  on  the  south  shore  outside  of  the  present  line  of  the 
breakwater,  but  in  spite  of  it  the  waves  washed  away  many 
acres  of  valuable  land.  The  piling  itself  vanished  subsequently. 
The  river  was  improved,  South  Water  Street  being  set  back  half 
a  block  about  the  middle  of  this  epoch,  allowing  the  bank  of 
the  river  to  be  straightened  out,  while  no  less  than  three  bridges 
were  built  in  1847,  viz :  at  Wells,  Randolph,  and  Madison 
Streets.  These  were,  however,  only  floating  bridges,  like  those 
removed  from  Clark  and  Polk  'Streets  very  recently.  The 
magnificent  swing  bridge  was  a  more  modern  innovation. 
There  was  little  dock  building  done  till  1848;  then  a  great 
deal  was  constructed  on  the  main  river  to  accommodate  the  in- 
creasing trade,  brought  in  by  the  just  completed  canal. 

Previous  to  1844  a  few  planks  had  been  laid  down  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  a  sidewalk,  but  the  unimproved  soil  was  the 
only  road-bed  in  the  middle  of  even  the  main  thoroughfares. 
Ditches  had  been  dug  on  the  edges  of  a  few  to  carry  off  the 
surplus  water,  but  they  were  found  so  inefficient  that  some 
bright  genius  conceived  the  idea  of  placing  the  gutter  in  the 
middle  of  the  street,  which  thus  became  an  open  sewer.  Those 


GROWING   AGAIN.  65 

who  have  since  rolled  luxuriously  over  the  more  than  fifty 
miles  of  streets  paved  with  wooden  blocks,  that  now  exist  in 
Chicago,  can  form  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  blessings  of  travel- 
ing through  the  prairie  road,  cut  up  by  hundreds  of  teams,  and 
reduced  to  a  miry  slush  of  half  a  yard  or  more  in  depth.  In 
1844  the  plank  road  was  introduced,  and  several  of  the  streets 
were  thus  improved  during  the  next  few  years.  Yet  the  im- 
provement was  but  a  sorry  one.  The  planks  would  wear  well 
for  awhile,  then  break  up  under  heavy  loads  and  spring  thaws, 
making  the  street  even  worse  than  if  the  natural  soil  fead  been 
left  uncovered. 

Previous  to  1846  Chicago  was  only  a  port  of  delivery,  and 
belonged  to  the  collection  district  of  Detroit.  The  first  arrival 
registered  at  the  Custom-house  is  dated  April  6,  1845,  when 
the  schooner  Congress,  of  200  tons  burden,  arrived  from  Port 
Huron  with  a  cargo  of  lumber.  In  that  year  we  had  a  total 
of  331  steamboats,  85  propellers,  116  brigs,  718  schooners,  and 
70  sloops  arriving;  total,  1320.  The  arrivals  in  1847,  were, 
19  steamers,  17  propellers,  36  brigs,  and  120  schooners;  total, 
192,  employing  1628  men.  The  district  of  Chicago,  formed  in 
July,  1846,  included  Milwaukee,  till  September,  1850.  We 
note  here  that  the  first  arrival  ever  known  in  the  harbor  of 
Chicago,  was  the  schooner  Tracy,  which  brought  supplies  for 
Fort  Dearborn  in  1803. 

Aff  late  as  1848  the  city  was  sometimes  a  whole  week  with- 
out the  arrival  of  a  single  mail.  The  total  commissions  of  the 
postmaster  for  that  year  were  but  $9,681.35. 

The  first  school-houses  built  by  the  city  were  erected  during 
this  period.  The  Dearborn,  only  torn  down  in  1871,  a  few 
months  before  the  fire,  was  located  opposite  the  place  where 

McVicker's  Theater  lately  stood,  and  just  north-east  of  Uie 
6 


66  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Tribune  office.  That  school-house  was  built  through  the  per- 
sistent effort  of  Alderman  Ira  Miltimore,  and  was  long  known 
as  "Miltiraore's  folly,"  the  people  believing  that  there  would 
never  be  scholars  enough  in  the  city  to  fill  it.  That  was  liter- 
ally a  day  of  small  expectations.  But  the  Jones  school  was 
erected  soon  afterward  on  Clark  Street,  near  Harrison;  the 
Kinzie  school  in  1845,  on  Ohio  Street,  near  Lasalle;  and  the 
Scammon  in  1846,  on  West  Madison,  near  Halstead.  In  the 
last-named  year  each  of  these  schools  had  one  male  and  two 
female  teachers. 

The  Rush  Medical  College  was  founded  in  1843,  with  a  class 
of  twenty-two  students,  and  two  daily  newspapers  were  estab- 
lished during  this  epoch — both  now  alive — the  Journal  in  1844, 
and  the  Tribune  in  1847.  The  Illinois  Staats  Zeitung  (Ger- 
man) was  first  issued  as  a  weekly  in  1846.  The  first  theater 
ever  built  in  Chicago  was  opened  June  28,  1847,  on  Dearborn 
Street  near  Randolph,  the  proprietor  being  J.  B.  Rice,  since 
mayor  of  the  city.  J.  H.  McVicker  was  a  member  of  his 
company  in  1849. 

The  number  of  church  societies  formed  in  the  years  1842-48 
was  not  less  than  eighteen;  most  of  them  erected  houses  of 
worship  previous  to  the  close  of  1848. 


THE  EXPECTANT   PERIOD.  67 


XI.    THE  EXPECTANT  PERIOD. 

THE  history  of  the  next  three  years,  from  1849  to  1851  in- 
clusive, is  really  of  the  same  general  character  as  that  of 
the  preceding  period,  yet  so  important  that  it  merits  notice  in 
a  separate  chapter.  It  was  emphatically  a  time  of  reaching  out. 
The  first  design  to  build  a  canal  to  the  Illinois  River  was 
very  early  supplemented  by  a  railroad  project,  which  was  felt 
to  be  of  almost  equal  importance.  As  early  as  1836,  when 
ihere  were  not  more  than  one  thousand  miles  of  railroad  in  the 
United  States,  the  Galena  and  Chicago  Union  Railroad  was 
chartered  by  the  Legislature.  In  the  succeeding  crash  the 
undertaking  was  killed  for  the  time  being,  and  ten  years  elapsed 
ere  it  was  revived.  In  1847,  the  first  length  of  rail  was  laid 
on  the  present  line  to  Freeport,  the  rail  first  used  being  simply 
one  of  strap-iron.  The  whole  line  of  121  miles,  from  Chicago 
to  Freeport,  was  not  opened  up  till  1853,  but  enough  of  it  was 
finished  by  1851  to  prove  that  the  grand  scheme  of  connection 
was  a  decided  success.  The  canal  gave  access  to  the  central 
parts  of  the  State,  the  rich  bottom  lands  in  the  Illinois  Valley, 
and  to  the  trade  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  while  the  railroad 
would  in  like  manner  place  the  city  in  communication  with 
the  wide  domain  of  the  upper  Mississippi  region,  and  with  the 
untold  mineral  wealth  in  the  lead  mines  of  Galena.  These  two 
great  arteries  of  commerce  would  bring  into  the  lap  of  Chicago 
the  trade  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  then  settled  parts  of  the 
North-west.  This  once  assured,  capital  flowed  in  apace  from  the 
East,  and  the  people  felt  that  they  could  afibrd  to  expend  money 
in  the  improvement  of  the  city,  which  had  hitherto  been  sadly 
neglected.  Even  at  this  time,  however,  the  importance  of  rail- 


68  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

road  connection  with  the  East  was  but  little  understood. 
Many,  even  of  our  business  men,  thought  that  the  lake  system 
was  all  that  was  necessary  to  carry  away  the  accumulated  pro- 
duce of  the  West,  and  bring  back  the  merchandise  required 
in  exchange.  They  had  not  then  learned  the  value  of  time  in 
commercial  transactions;  the  mail  and  the  canal  were  better  than 
the  railroad  and  the  telegraph.  A  few  men  were  hard  at  work 
in  the  endeavor  to  open  up  railroad  routes  to  the  East,  but  they 
met  with  most  discouraging  opposition  from  those  who  were 
most  to  be  benefited  by  the  improvements. 

The  population  increased  from  20,923,  in  1848,  to  about 
34,000  in  1851,  and  the  growth  would  have  been  much  greater 
but  for  the  cholera.  That  dread  disease  was  brought  up  the 
river  from  New  Orleans  in  the  emigrant  boat  John  Drew,  the 
first  case  being  noticed  on  the  29th  of  April.  The  disease 
spread  rapidly,  as  other  emigrants  arrived,  many  of  them  from 
various  parts  of  Europe,  where  the  cholera  was  raging.  It  was 
estimated  that  the  total  number  of  persons  attacked  was  about 
one  thousand,  of  whom  314  died  from  July  25th  to  August 
28th,  inclusive.  The  greatest  mortality  occurred  in  a  neighbor- 
hood of  three  squares  in  the  North  Division,  with  332  inhabi- 
tants, principally  Norwegians,  and  scarcely  one  of  the  whole 
number  escaped  the  infection.  It  was  remarked  as  singular  at 
that  time  that  the  ground  in  that  locality  was  high  and  sandy, 
but  the  secret  was  afterward  discovered  that  all  had  used  water 
from  the  same  well  into  which  the  drainings  of  an  outhcuse 
had  found  their  way. 

The  deaths  from  cholera  during  the  year  were  678,  one  in  36 
of  the  entire  population.  In  the  same  year  Cincinnati  lost 
4450,  or  one  in  23;  St.  Louis  lost  4297,  or  one  in  21;  New 
Orleans  4000,  or  one  in  37;  New  York  5122,  or  one  in  79. 


THE   EXPECTANT   PERIOD.  69 

The  prevalance  of  the  disease  was  such  that  it  spread  to  nearly 
every  cluster  of  dwellings  in  the  North-west,  and  for  a  time 
communication  between  Chicago  and  the  interior  was  almost 
entirely  suspended.  Business,  however,  soon  revived,  and  in  a 
short  period  the  cholera  seemed  to  have  produced  no  ill  effect 
on  the  prosperity  of  the  city,  which  grew  rapidly. 

The  disease  appeared  again  in  July,  1850,  but  less  severely, 
tnough  the  aggregate  mortality  was  much  greater.  From  July 
18th  to  August  31st,  inclusive,  613  died,  of  whom  416  were 
cholera  patients.  September  only  witnessed  four  deaths  from 
cholera,  making  a  total  of  420,  or  one  in  64  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  cholera  came  again  in  1851  and  1852,  but  its  ravages  were 
slight. 

Early  in  the  year  1849,  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the 
formation  of  the  Chicago  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Company,  and 
giving  them  the  exclusive  right  to  supply  gas  to  the  city  for 
ten  years.  The  company  commenced  operations  as  soon  after 
the  passage  of  the  act  as  possible,  locating  their  works  on 
Adams  Street,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river.  These  works  were 
the  first  to  take  fire  in  the  South  Division,  in  the  great  confla- 
gration, and  from  that  point  the  flames  spread  over  the  entire 
business  part  of  the  city.  In  September,  1850,  the  gas  was 
turned  on  for  the  first  time,  and  the  citizens  of  Chicago  enjoy- 
ed the  luxury  of  lighted  streets  at  night.  By  the  end  of  1852, 
the  company  had  laid  nearly  eight  miles  of  pipe,  with  five 
hundred  and  seventy-four  meters,  and  counted  five  hundred 
and  sixty-one  private  consumers. 

The  people'  now  agitated  for  a  better  water  supply  than  was 
furnished  by  the  crooked  arrangement  described  in  Chapter  9, 
but  did  not  succeed  in  obtaining  it  till  afterwards.  The  Chi- 
cago City  Hydraulic  Company  was  called  into  existence  in 


70  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

February,  1851,  and  John  B.  Turner,  A.  S.  Sherman,  and  H. 
G.  Loomis  were  appointed  as  the  first  Board  of  Water  Com 
missioners.   William  J.  McAlpine  was  employed  (June  26th)  as 
engineer.     The  water  was  not  supplied  to  the  houses  till  Feb- 
ruary, 1854. 

In  1849,  the  bridges  were  all  swept  away  by  a  great  freshet 
in  the  river,  and  better  structures  were  afterward  provided. 

•In  1848,  the  building  of  wharves  was  pushed  forward  with 
considerable  energy,  and  some  two  miles  in  length  were  com- 
pleted by  1852.  But  the  great  events  of  the  epoch  were  the  for- 
mation of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  birth  of  the  grain  eleva- 
tor system.  Grain  had  previously  been  bought,  and  stored,  and 
shipped,  but  only  in  the  way  each  individual  dictated  for  him- 
self. There  was  no  system. 

The  truth  being  told,  it  would  be  necessary  to  say  that  the 
system  was  instituted  some  time  before  it  was  needed ;  and  it  is 
this  fact  that  marks  the  period  under  review — it  was  eminently 
one  of  expectancy.  The  commerce  of  the  city  grew  compara- 
tively little  during  those  years.  Indeed,  the  shipments  of  wheat, 
and  flour  reduced  to  wheat,  fell  from  2,286,000  bushels,  in  1848, 
to  799,380  bushels  in  1851,  but  the  difference  was  more  than 
compensated  by  the  increase  in  other  grain,  the  total  shipment8 
being  4,646,291  bushels,  in  1851,  against  3,001,740  bushels  in 
1848,  the  total  having  dropped  to  1,830,938  bushels  in  1850. 
In  like  manner  we  find  the  business  of  the  canal  to  have  been 
nearly  stationary,  except  in  the  eastward  movement  of  corn,  and 
the  westward  movement  of  lumber.  The  receipts  of  corn  were 
nearly  nine  times  as  great  in  1851  as  in  1850,  and  the  increase 
in  the  shipments  of  lumber  was  nearly  fifty  per  cent.  The 
growth  of  the  wholesale  trade  of  the  city,  in  other  departments, 
was  somewhat  less  than  in  lumber. 


THE   EXPECTANT   PERIOD.  71 

Early  in  1848  Thomas  Richmond  and  "W.  L.  Whiting  dis- 
cussed one  afternoon  the  propriety  of  establishing  a  Board  of 
Trade  in  Chicago.  Mr.  Richmond  was  then  in  the  elevating 
business,  and  Mr.  Whiting  a  grain  broker — the  first  who  pur- 
sued this  avocation  in  Chicago.  These  gentlemen  consulted 
with  other  business  men,  and  the  result  of  this  consultation  was 
an  invitation  (published  at  the  time)  for  the  merchants  gener- 
ally to  meet  together  on  the  13th  of  March,  1848,  to  take  the 
initiatory  steps  in  regard  to  the  formation  of  the  Chicago  Board 
of  Trade.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  call : 

"Merchants  and  business  men  who  are  favorable  to  the 
establishment  of  a  Board  of  Trade  in  this  city,  are  requested  to 
meet  at  the  office  of  W.  L.  Whiting,  on  the  13th  (March,  1848), 
at  3  o'clock  P.  M. 

"  Wadsworth,  Dyer  &  Chapin,     Norton,  Walker  &  Co., 

George  Steele,  De  Wolf  &  Co., 

I.  H.  Burch  &  Co.,  Charles  Walker, 

Gurnee,  Hayden  &  Co.,  Thomas  Richmond, 

H.  H.  Magie  &  Co.,  Thomas  Hale, 

Neef  &  Church,  Raymond,  Gibbs  &  Co." 
John  H.  Kinzie, 

At  this  meeting  nothing  further  was  done  than  to  pass  reso- 
lutions stating  that  the  growing  trade  of  Chicago  demanded  the 
establishment  of  a  Board  of  Trade.  A  constitution  was  then 
adopted,  and  a  committee  appointed  to  draw  up  by-laws  to  be 
submitted  at  an  adjourned  meeting,  to  be  held  on  the  first  Mon- 
day in  April  following,  when  they  were  adopted.  All  inter- 
ested were  invited  to  meet  daily  at  the  new  rooms  on  South 
Water  Street,  which  had  been  rented  at  $110  per  annum. 
George  Smith  (the  banker)  was  elected  first  president,  but 
declined  to  serve,  and  Thomas  Dyer  was  then  chosen  to  fill  the 


72  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

office.  The  Board  met  and  resolved,  and  appointed  committees 
and  inspectors  of  produce,  and  considered  the  condition  of  the 
river  and  harbor,  but  did  no  business  of  any  account  for  a  long 
time.  In  April,  1850,  the  Board  formally  organized  under  an 
act  passed  the  previous  year,  and  placed  the  annual  dues  at 
three  dollars.  In  1851  the  association  consisted  of  thirty -eight 
members,  but  the  records  show  that  often  for  several  days 
together  there  was  not  a  single  member  in  attendance,  and  the 
entry,  "No  transactions,"  became  a  stereotyped  phrase,  as  well 
as  a  standing  joke. 

In  1848  there  were  three  or  four  so-called  grain  elevators  in 
existence,  but  they  were  very  small,  the  elevating  was  done  by 
means  of  a  mule  on  the  roof,  and  all  the  grain  was  the  property 
of  the  man  who  owned  the  elevator,  he  buying  it  from  the 
farmer,  and  generally  shipping  it  forward  on  his  own  account, 
though  one  of  them — Orrington  Lunt— always  sold  his  grain 
to  a  shipper,  after  his  first  shipping  venture,  in  which  he  lost 
heavily.  About  the  close  of  the  period  under  review,  one 
steam  elevator  was  erected,  and  the  business  of  storing  grain 
for  others  became  a  recognized  feature,  though  not  extensively 
resorted  to.  At  first  the  only  storers  were  shippers,  who  bought 
the  grain  from  the  warehousemen  in  winter,  and  paid  for  the 
storage  till  they  could  move  it  forward  in  the  season  of  naviga- 
tion. 


THE   RAILROAD   ERA.  73 


XII.    THE    RAILROAD    ERA. 

TN  1852  Chicago  took  a  "new  departure."  She  became  the 
-*-  center  of  a  network  of  railways,  which  soon  branched  out 
to  every  point  of  the  compass,  except  the  north-east,  though 
those  lines  have  since  been  extended  farther  in  every  direc- 
tion, save  to  the  eastward.  Hitherto  a  stranger  to  the  iron- 
horse,  she  had  depended  on  the  wagon,  or  the  slow  canal  to 
the  westward,  and  on  a  circuitous  water  route  to  the  seaboard. 
Then  she  at  once  took  rank  as  an  important  center  of  railroad 
travel  and  traffic,  becoming  what  had  been  dreamed  out  for 
her  many  years  previously,  but  not  realized.  Even  to-day  she 
avails  herself,  to  a  considerable  extent,  of  the  facilities  afforded 
by  water  transportation ;  but  it  is  as  a  railroad  power  that  Chi- 
cago stands  preeminent  among  the  cities  of  the  United  States, 
and  her  commercial  importance  is  in  large  part  due  to  the  con- 
nections made  in  the  one  year,  1852. 

It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  though  Chicago  had  been  for  years 
preparing  for  the  advent  of  the  railroad  system,  she  had  no 
hand  in  establishing  that  mighty  series  of  links  that  now  bind 
her  with  bands  of  iron  to  the  world  around  her.  Not  only 
did  the  city  furnish  no  aid,  in  its  corporate  capacity,  to  the 
improvements,  to  which  hundreds  of  other  cities  and  counties 
pledged  themselves,  but  few  of  her  citizens  subscribed  money, 
as  individuals,  to  railroad  enterprises.  They  were  the  sought, 
rather  than  the  seekers.  Eastern  capital  saw  that  Chicago  was 
equally  essential  to  the  development  of  the  West,  as  the  West 
was  necessary  to  the  growth  of  the  Garden  City.  They  saw 
that  the  wealth  of  the  West  must  flow  through  her,  as  the  sand 
must  run  through  the  neck  of  an  hour-glass,  and  subscribed 
7 


74  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

their  money  to  build  those  railroads  that  center  in  Chicago,  not 
for  love  of  the  place,  but  because,  as  one  of  them  naively  re- 
marked, they  "could  not  get  around  her,"  which  was  true  in 
more  senses  than  one.  Hence  it  was  comparatively  easy  for  the 
city  to  grow  mightily  when  the  time  arrived  for  it.  Her  mer- 
chants and  business  men  needed  enterprise  and  ability ;  but  the 
harvest  lay  at  their  feet,  all  ready  to  be  gathered  in,  and  the 
work  of  preparing  the  ground,  sowing  the  seed,  and  tending 
the  growing  crop,  had  all  been  performed  by  others,  who  stood 
ready  to  do  even  more,  as  they  saw  profit  in  it  to  themselves. 

The  parent  line  has  been  already  named — the  Galena  &  Chi- 
casro  line — commenced  in  1847.  In  1850  it  had  reached  El- 

o 

gin,  forty-two  miles  from  Chicago,  was  completed  to  Freeport 
in  September,  1853  (121  miles),  and  a  portion  of  the  Illinois 
Central  extended  the  route  to  Galena,  in  1854. 

The  next  important  undertaking  was  the  Illinois  Central 
line,  projected  to  extend  from  Chicago  to  Cairo,  in  the  extreme 
southern  point  of  the  State,  a  distance  of  365  miles,  and  from 
Central ia,  on  that  line  112  miles  from  Cairo,  north-west  to  the 
northern  limit  of  the  State,  making  a  total  of  704  miles  of 
railroad.  This  road  had  its  origin  September  20,  1850,  when 
Hon.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  secured  the  passage  of  an  act  by 
Congress,  granting  to  the  State  of  Illinois  every  alternate  sec- 
tion of  land  to  a  distance  of  six  miles  on  each  side  of  the  line 
of  road,  to  aid  in  its  construction.  The  original  grant  of  laud 
was  for  2,595,000  acres. 

On  the  10th  of  February,  1851,  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  was  chartered  by  the  Legislature,  and  the  lands  trans- 
ferred to  it  on  condition  that  the  road  should  be  built  within  a 
time  specified,  and  that  seven  per  cent,  of  the  gross  receipts  of 
the  line  should  be  paid  into  the  State  treasury  annually  forever, 


THE    RAILROAD    ERA.  75 

after  the  road  was  finished.  In  1852  the  officers  of  the  road 
obtained  permission  to  enter  the  city  along  the  lake  shore  from 
the  southward,  and  immediately  thereafter  commenced  the  con- 
struction of  the  magnificent  line  of  break-water  two  miles  long, 
and  costing  "three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars,  that  now  protects 
the  south  shore  from  the  incursions  of  the  lake,  and  has  rescued 
many  acres  of  ground  from  the  wild  waves.  The  total  length 
of  the  piling  since  constructed  is  16,459  feet.  The  inside  line 
of  the  crib-works,  south  of  Randolph  Street,  is  four  hundred 
feet  east  of  the  east  line  of  Michigan  Avenue,  and  was  built  in 
the  lake  for  a  distance  of  one  mile.  Most  of  that  vacuum  has 
since  been  filled  in,  and  the  great  Union  Depot  was  built  on  a 
portion  of  the  ground  thus  rescued  from  the  lake. 

After  this  in  the  order  of  beginning,  but  earlier  in  execution, 
and  equally,  if  not  more,  important,  was  the  double  connection 
of  Chicago  with  the  East  by  rail. 

The  Michigan  Central  was  the  first  to  approach  the  city.  It 
was  projected  in  1842,  and  built  in  that  year  from  Detroit  to 
Ypsilanti  in  Michigan,  being  afterward  extended  to  St.  Joseph, 
which  was  for  some  time  the  terminus  of  rail  travel  from  New 
York  and  BuflRilo  westward.  Travelers  generally  crossed  the 
lake  from  St.  Joseph  to  Chicago,  and  the  former  point  was  con* 
nected  by  stage  with  the  moving  end  of  the  rail  track  as  it 
approached  from  Detroit.  In  1852  it  was  extended  into 
Chicago,  the  last  rail  being  laid  May  21st. 

This  was  not,  however,  the  first  eastern  road  to  make  the 
connection.  The  people  residing  around  the  bend  of  the  lake 
in  northern  Indiana,  were  ambitious  at  some  time  to  have  a 
line  of  rail  running  through  their  section  from  Toledo,  and 
opposed  the  Michigan  Central  project  with  tooth  and  nail,  as 
they  believed  that  there  would  never  be  traffic  enough  to  main- 


76  CHICAGO  AND   THE  GREAT  CON  FLAG  RATION. 

tain  two  competing  lines.  When,  however,  they  found  that 
they  could  not  defeat  it,  they  set  vigorously  to  work  to  organ- 
ize the  rival  road,  which,  principally  through  their  exertions, 
\vas  completed  to  Chicago  on  the  20th  of  February,  1852.  fully 
two  months  before  its  rival,  and  being  the  first  after  the  Galena, 
to  connect  with  the  great  railway  center. 

Other  roads  followed  in  rapid  succession,  to  which  we  shall 
refer  presently,  but  they  only  helped  the  work  already  begun. 
The  two  eastern  lines  opened  up  channels  along  which  the  tide 
of  emigration  rolled  so  copiously  that  it  was  almost  impossible 
to  keep  track  of  the  movement,  which  was  invited  by  the  fact 
that  the  whole  State  of  Illinois  was  also  made  accessible  by  rail 
to  the  emigrants  who  now  thronged  in  from  every  part  of 
Europe.  How  much  Chicago  grew  under  the  impetus  thus 
given,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  her  population  increased  from 
38,734  souls  in  1852,  to  59,139  in  1853,  a  gain  of  52J  per  cent, 
in  a  single  year.  The  official  valuation  of  property,  real  and 
personal,  exhibited  a  corresponding'  augment,  being  about 
$10,460,000  in  1852,  and  $16,841,831  a  year  afterward. 

That  the  development  of  the  country  beyond  proceeded  with 
equal  rapidity,  is  proven  by  a  comparison  of  the  produce  trade 
of  the  city  one  year  later;  the  soil  could  not  bear  fruit  till  a 
year  after  it  was  first  cultivated.  The  receipts  of  grain  (flour 
reduced  to  its  equivalent  in  wheat)  were  6,473,809  bushels  in 
1853,  and  nearly  two  and  a  half  times  as  much,  or  15,726,968 
bushels,  in  1854.  And  the  increase  in  the  receipts  of  1853 
over  those  of  1852,  were  fully  50  per  cent.  The  grain  ship- 
ments of  1853  were  double,  and  those  of  1854  were  four  times 
greater  than  those  of  1848,  the  year  when  the  canal  was  first 
opened  to  traffic. 
1  The  business  of  hog  packing  was  equally  stimulated.  In  the 


THE    RAILROAD   ERA.  77 

winter  of  1851-2  the  number  of  hogs  cut  up  was  22,036;  in 
1852-3  it  was  44,156;  in  1853-4  it  amounted  to  52,849.  And 
25,431  cattle  were  packed  in  the  last-named  year. 

The  lines  above  mentioned  were  but  a  portion  of  the  great 
system  soon  to  acknowledge  Chicago  as  its  radial  point. 

The  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Company  had  obtained  a 
charter  as  early  as  1848  for  a  branch  of  their  road  to  connect 
Belvidere  with  Madison,  Wisconsin,  by  way  of  Beloit.  The 
Illinois  &  Wisconsin  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated  in 

1851,  and  these  two  were  soon  merged  into  one,  the  whole 
being  in  1855  combined  with  the  Fond  du  Lac  branch  from 
Janesville,  to  form  what  has  since  been  known  as  the  North- 
western Road,  which  in  1864  swallowed  up  its  parent,  the  old 
Galena   &   Chicago  Union.     The  line   from   Chicago  to  Mil- 
waukee was  built  in  1854.     This  system  of  railroads  opened  up 
to  Chicago  the  trade  of  the  whole  of  the  country  then  settled 
north  of  a  line  drawn  due  west  from  the  city. 

The  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad  was  commenced  in 
April,  1852,  and  finished  to  the  Mississippi,  182  miles  distant, 
in  February,  1854.  Then  followed  the  line  from  Chicago  to 
St.  Louis,  the  part  from  Springfield  to  Alton  being  built  in 
1853,  and  that  from  Joliet  to  Springfield  in  1854,  the  track  of 
-the  Rock  Island  road  being  used  as  far  as  Joliet  till  1857,  when 
an  independent  line  was  constructed  between  the  two  cities. 
The  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Qnincy  road  was  completed  to 
Aurora,  thirteen  miles  westward,  in  1852,  and  to  Mendota,  on 
the  Illinois  Central,  in  1853,  this  line  being  then  consolidated 
in  1856  with  previously  independent  roads  to  the  Mississippi. 
The  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago  road,  furnishing  a  third 
route  to  the  East,  was  last  on  the  list.  It  was  incorporated  in 

1852,  but  not  finished  till  November,  1856. 


78  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

It  appears,  then,  that  all  the  main  lines  which  entered  the  city 
at  the  date  of  the  great  conflagration,  except  one  (the  Pittsburgh 
&  Cincinnati),  were  built  \vithin  about  four  years  from  the  time 
that  Chicago  was  h'rst  connected  with  the  East  by  rail.  And 
not  only  this,  but  in  the  early  part  of  that  period  nearly  all  the 
extensions  and  connections,  since  perfected,  were  planned,  and 
most  of  them  have  been  carried  out  as  originally  designed. 
Among  those  then  contemplated  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  the 
lines  now  connecting  with  Minnesota,  the  three  lines  across  the 
State  of  Iowa  and  their  prolongation  into  the  Great  Pacific 
Railroad,  and  the  road  across  northern  Missouri,  with  steam- 
boat connections  on  the  Mississippi  at  all  points  touched  or 
crossed  by  the  iron  rail.  These  four  years  are  pre-eminently 
entitled  to  be  called  the  railroad  era,  and  the  five  years  follow- 
ing 1852  were  the  most  prosperous  in  the  history  of  the  city  up 
to  that  time. 

In  January,  1852,  there  was  only  about  40  miles  of  railroad 
connected  with  Chicago.  By  the  end  of  1853  the  mileage  was 
1785.  At  the  close  of  1854  it  had  increased  to  2436J  miles, 
and  to  3953  miles  in  1857.  These  figures  do  not  include  the 
length  of  independent  lines  connecting  with  Chicago  roads. 
For  instance,  the  Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana  is 
not  measured  beyond  Toledo. 


COMMERCIAL  GROWTH   IN  THE  RAILROAD  ERA.  79 


XIII.     COMMERCIAL    GROWTH    IN    THE    RAIL- 
ROAD   ERA. 

"\X7~E  have  already  seen  how  wondrotisly  the  population  and 
*  "  commerce  of  the  city  grew  during  the  first  year  after  the 
introduction  of  the  railroad  era.  That  ratio  of  over  fifty  per 
cent,  was  scarcely  sustained  through  each  following  year,  up  to 
the  crisis  of  1857,  but  the  growth  of  the  city  in  every  respect" 
was  rapid  enough  during  the  whole  of  that  period  to  satisfy  the 
most  sanguine. 

The  grain  trade  of  the  city  was  wonderfully  stimulated.  In 
1852,  the  united  capacity  of  all  the  grain  warehouses  was 
scarcely  more  than  750,000  bushels,  and  the  only  steam  eleva- 
tor was  one  built  by  R.  C.  Bristol.  In  1857  there  were  no 
less  than  twelve  elevators,  having  an  invested  capital  of 
$3,087,000,  with  a  storage  capacity  of  4,095,000  bushels,  and 
a  capacity  to  receive  and  ship  of  495,000  bushels  per  day.  The 
great  year  for  elevator  building  was  in  1854,  when  Chicago  had 
passed  St.  Louis  in  the  contest  for  superiority  as  a  grain  mar- 
ket— a  position  she  ever  after  retained.  The  receipts  at  St. 
Louis  in  1853  were  5,081,468  bushels;  in  Chicago  the  receipts 
were  6,473,089  bushels  of  grain  of  all  kinds.  In  1854,  the 
exports  of  grain  from  Chicago  exceeded  those  of  New  York 
by  3,471,975  bushels,  and  were  nearly  double  those  of  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, Archangel,  or  Odessa,  the  largest  grain  markets  in 
Europe. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  although  the  commerce  of  the  city 
took  such  rapid  strides,  the  Board  of  Trade,  since  the  great 
channel  through  which  the  produce  business  of  the  city  is  trans- 
acted, was  little  better  than  a  figure  head  during  the  whole  of 


80  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

this  period.  In  1853,  the  Secretary  was  instructed  to  pro- 
vide a  daily  set-out  of  crackers,  cheese,  and  ale,  as  an  induce- 
ment to  the  members  to  attend;  and  though  this  was  afterward 
discontinued,  it  was  judged  necessary  to  revive  it  in  1855,  as 
an  attendance  could  be  obtained  in  no  other  way.  The  Board 
grew  in  membership,  but  ks  members  preferred  to  transact 
their  business  in  their  own  stores,  or  in  the  streets,  with  the 
parties  who  came  in  from  the  country  with  produce.  They  had 
not  yet  learned  the  art  of  trading  with  one  another,  and  as 
every  tub  then  stood  on  its  own  bottom,  they  cared  little  for 
that  comparison  of  views  without  which  little  is  bought  or  sold 
at  the  present  day. 

"We  find  the  Board  very  useful,  however,  in  another  .capacity. 
It  was  great  on  resolutions.  In  1853  it  advocated  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  monster  bank,  with  a  capital  of  five  millions  of 
dollars,  to  accommodate  the  trade  of  Chicago.  In  1854  it  took 
action  on  the  improvement  of  the  Illinois  River,  the  dredging 
out  of  the  harbor,  building  additional  piers,  erecting  a  light- 
house (built  in  1855),  and  instituted  a  most  important  reform  in 
the  selling  of  grain  by  weight,  instead  of  by  the  half-bushel  meas- 
ure, as  formerly.  In  1855  action  was  taken  in  reference  to  the 
Ge'orgiau  Bay  Canal,  and  the  reciprocity  treaty  with  Canada. 
In  this  year  it  was  found  necessary  to  employ  a  doorkeeper  to 
keep  out  non-members  who  were  attracted  by  the  creature  :om- 
forts  on  the  table  at  the  end  of  the  hall.  In  1856  the  Board 
provided  standards  for  the  inspection  of  grain  and  lumber  int(/ 
different  grades,  and  had  increased  in  membership  so  much  thai 
it  was  found  necessary  to  rent  rooms  on  the  corner  of  South 
Water  and  Lasalle  Streets,  at  $1,000  per  annum. 

The  following  table  of  the  movement  of  the  principal  arti- 
cles of  produce,  etc.,  in  1852,  '54,  and  '56,  will  show  the  rate 


COMMERCIAL,   GROWTH   IN   THE   RAILROAD  ERA.  SI 

at  which  the  commerce  of  the  city  grew  during  this  period. 
The  shipments  of  wheat  and  flour  were  greater  in  1857  than 
in  1856,  but  the  exhibit  was  not  so  large  in  other  departments: 


Articles. 

1852. 

1854. 

1856. 

Flour  received,  bbls. 

.     124,316 

234,575 

410,989 

Wheat      M        bu.. 

.    937,4% 

3,038,955 

8,767,760 

Corn         "         "   . 

.  2,991,011 

7,490,753 

11,888,398 

Grain        "         "  . 

.  4,195,192 

15,726,968 

25,817,248 

Grain  shipped,   "    . 

.  5,873,141 

12,932,320 

21,583,221 

Hogs  received, 

.       65,158 

138,515 

220,702 

Hogs  packed,  . 

.      44,156 

73,694 

74,000 

Cattle        "... 

.       24,663 

23,691 

14,971 

Lumber  received,  M. 

.     147,816 

228,337 

441,962 

Hides         u       No. 

.       25,893 

28,606 

70,560 

Stone          "       ca.  yds.  . 

.       40,752 

68,436 

92,609 

Coal           "       tons,       . 

.       46,233 

56,774 

93,020 

Lead          "          " 

678 

2,124 

3,314 

Vessels  arrived, 

.  [not  stated.]       5,021 

7,328 

Tonnage  of  do. 

u 

1,092,644 

1,545,379 

Population,     . 

.       38,734 

65,872 

84,113 

In  the  last  named  year  the  live  stock  trade  had  increased  so 
much  as  to  necessitate  the  establishment  of  the  Sherman  Yards, 
at  Cottage  Grove,  containing  some  thirty  acres,  and  capable  of 
accommodating  5000  head  of  cattle,  and  30,000  hogs.  Previous 
to  this,  the  business  had  all  been  conducted  at  the  Bull's  Head, 
on  the  corner  of  Madison  Street  and  Ashland  Avenue,  which 
was  established  in  1 848.  That  site  is  now  occupied  by  the  Wash- 
ingtonian  Home  for  the  reformation  of  drunkards. 

The  year  1856  was  memorable  as  the  one  in  which  the  Dean 
Richmond,  of  387  tons  burden,  arrived  at  Liverpool,  direct  from 
Chicago. 

The  wholesale  trade  of  the  city  increased  in  a  ratio  corre- 


82  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

spending  with  her  produce  movement.  The  railroads  and  the 
canal  not  only  brought  in  grain  and  the  other  products  of  the 
farm,  but  they  carried  out  immense  quantities  of  merchandise, 
and  by  the  aid  of  a  judicious  drummer  system,  Chicago  mer- 
chants soon  supplied  hundreds  of  square  miles  of  territory  *vith 
goods,  from  which  they  obtained  only  money  in  return.  The 
drummer  system  has  recently  been  found  fault  with  as  ex- 
pensive, and  abandoned,  to  a  great  extent;  but  whatever  its 
faults,  it  certainly  did  much  to  open  up  the  eyes  of  the  West- 
ern people  to  the  fact  that  Chicago  was  prepared  to  compete 
with  New  York,  both  in  regard  to  quality  and  price,  and  she 
soon  carried  off  the  palm. 

In  1852,  the  commerce  of  the  city  was  estimated  at  $20,000,- 
000;  in  1853,  at  nearly  $30,000,000  ;,in  1856,  at  $85,000,- 
000.  Governor  Matteson  stated  in  his  message  in  1852,  that 
there  were  then  211  wholesale  houses  in  the  city.  This  was 
not  true,  however,  in  the  sense  we  now  understand  the  term. 
There  were  scarcely  a  dozen  real  wholesalers.  In  1856,  the 
number  had  increased  seven  or  eight  fold. 


XIV.  MANUFACTURES  IN  THE  RAILROAD  ERA. 

TN  1850  the  manufactures  of  the  city  were  very  limited.  The 
-•-  total  annual  product  of  Cook  County,  of  which  Chicago 
formed  by  far  the  largest  portion,  was  returned  at  $2,562,583 
on  a  capital  of  $1,068,025  and  employing  2081  workers. 

In  1852  there  was  still  but  little  done  in  the  way  of  manu- 
facturing, but  the  next  year  this  department  of  activity  assumed 
large  proportions. 


MANUFACTURES   IN   THE  RAILROAD   ERA.  83 

In  his  commercial  Review  for  1853,  "Mr.  Bross  mentions  the 
Chicago  Locomotive  Company,  formed  in  September,  1853, 
•with  a  capital  stock  of  $150,000,  and  the  completion  in  that 
year  of  the  "Enterprise,"  the  first  locomotive  built  here,  with 
two  other  engines;  the  American  Car  Company,  which  com- 
menced business  in  1853,  turning  out  §450,000  worth  of  work 
in  the  first  year,  and  employing  some  260  hands;  the  Union 
Car  Works  of  A.  B.  Stone  &  Co.,  and  the  bridge-yard  of  Stone 
&  Boomer,  the  work  of  the  two  firms  in  1853  being  250  freight, 
30  passenger,  and  10  baggage  cars,  10  bridges  and  19  turnr 
tables;  the  Illinois  Stone  and  Lime  Company;  the  marble- 
works  of  H.  &  O.  Wilson,  with  an  annual  business  of  $15,000; 
the  making  of  three  million  bricks;  the  operations  of  five  firms 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  carriages  and  wagons,  and  ag- 
gregating a  yearly  business  of  $117,000;  five  furniture  facto- 
ries; the  Chicago  Oil-mill,  with  a  capital  of  $25,000;  several 
soap  and  candle  factories;  four  machine-shops,  with  an  annual 
business  of  $270,000;  three  leather-factories,  employing  107 
men;  two  stove-foundries;  and  two  firms  engaged  in  making 
reapers  and  mowers,  employing  195  men.  Besides  these,  he 
speaks  of  hats  and  caps,  clothing,  boots  and  shoes,  fur  goods, 
harness,  trunks,  saddlery,  etc.  The  statement  for  1853  was 
a  large  one,  but  it  was  far  exceeded  the  next  year,  and  each 
euccessive  twelve  months  to  the  close  of  1856,  when  the  work 
of  three  years  previous  had  been  increased  nearly  tenfold.  In 
that  year  the  value  of  the  manufactures  was  $15,515,063,  turned 
out  on  a  capital  of  $7,759,400,  by  10,573  operatives.  Among 
th(se,  iron  works,  steam-engines,  etc.,  took  the  lead,  with  2,866 
workers,  and  a  product  of  $3,887,084.  Next  came  the  manu- 
facture of  drinks,  employing  165  persons,  and  turning  out 
$1,150,320  annually.  Next  were  agricultural  implements,  with 


84      CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

575  workers,  $1,134,300  worth  of  product,  and  then  mills  for 
planing  lumber  and  making  sash,  doors,  etc.,  with  554  workers 
and  $1,092,397  worth  of  product.  We  find  also  the  following 
items:  furniture,  $543,000;  bricks,  $712,000;  cooperage,  etc., 
$357,250;  leather,  $432,000,  and  stone  and  marble,  $896,775. 
The  general  progress  was  materially  aided  by  the  passage  of  a 
general  banking  act  in  January,  1853,  which  enabled  the  issue 
of  bank  notes  in  the  State,  after  a  pecuniary  interregnum  of 
more  than  ten  years.  The  Marine  Bank  (J.  Y.  Scammon)  was 
the  first  to  organize  under  the  act.  The  next  year  there  were 
not  less  than  nine  banks  of  issue  in  the  city,  besides  eight  pri- 
vate bankers.  The  total  bank-circulation  in  1853  was  $760,000, 
and  in  1854  was  $3,759,000,  principally  based  on  Illinois  stocks. 
During  the  next  three  years  the  banks  were  exceedingly  pros- 
perous,, and  the  abundance  of  currency  helped  largely  to  stimu- 
late the  unnatural  inflation  of  that  period. 


XV.     CITY  IMPROVEMENTS  IN.  THE  RAILROAD 

ERA. 

WITH  such  a  tremendous  forward  march  in  commerce  and 
manufactures,  the  aspect  of  the  city  could  not  be  other- 
wise than  completely  revolutionized.  The  limits  were  extended 
in  1853,  and  again  in  1854,  the  boundaries  becoming  Fullerton 
Avenue  on  the  north,  Thirty-first  Street  on  the  south,  Western 
Avenue  on  the  west,  and  one  mile  beyond  the  lake-shore  on 
the  east.  From  this  quadrilateral  was  excepted  Bridgeport  and 
Holston,  on  the  two  western  corners. 

The  city  had  previously  been   provided  with  gas  in  1850. 


CITY   IMPROVEMENTS   IX   THE   RAILROAD   ERA.  85 

The  next  step  was  to  procure  a  good  supply  of  water.  In 
April  and  August,  1852,  bonds  were  issued  to  the  amount* of 
$400,000,  from  the  sale  of  which  $361,280  was  realized,  and 
the  work  proceeded  with,  though  not  without  opposition  from 
the  Hydraulic  Company.  A  timber  crib  was  built  out  600  feet 
from  the  shore,  near  the  site  of  the  present  pumping  works, 
and  the  water  ran  thence  into  a  well,  twenty  feet  deep,  whence 
it  was  pumped  up  by  an  engine  of  200-horse  power  to  the  top 
of'a  cast-iron  column  140  feet  high.  A  reservoir  was  subse- 
quently built  in  each  division  of  the  city  to  hold  a  night's  sup- 
ply; that  in  the  South  Division  was  erected  in  1854.  The 
water  was  first  introduced  into  the  houses  in  February,  1854. 
The  supply  from  these  works  was  estimated  to  be  equal  to  that 
required  by  a  population  of  100,000;  the  cost  of  construction 
was  about  §335,000. 

The  next  important  public  improvement  was  drainage.  The 
city  was  visited  by  cholera,  in  its  worst  form,  in  1854,  not  less 
than  931  deaths  occurring  in  July,  or  one  in  71  of  the  entire 
population.  The  mortality  of  the  year  was  3,830,  or  one  in  17. 
It  was  soon  reasoned  out  that  a  thorough  drainage  would  prob- 
ably prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  a  terrible  visitation  in  the 
future,  and  since  that  important  work  was  undertaken  the 
cholera  has  only  appeared  once  (in  1866),  and  then  in  a  very 
mild  form.  But  here  a  great  difficulty  presented  itself.  In 
the  suburbs  the  soil  averaged  11  to  14  feet  above  the  lowest 
lake-level;  but  in  the  more  densely-populated  portions  the 
water  sometimes  rose  to  within  three  feet  of  the  surface,  as  in 
1848,  and  any  thing  like  a  sloping  drain  was  impossible.  The 
deficiency  must  be  supplied.  In  1855  a  grade  was  established 
raising  the  surface  about  four  feet,  and  that  grade  was  after- 
ward raised,  the  filling  in  being  as  much  as  six  or  seven  feet 


86  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

in  some  places,  above  the  original  level.  Even  the  improved 
grade  has  been  found  fault  with,  as  not  giving  sufficient  base- 
ment room,  and  the  burnt  district  in  the  South  Division  has 
been  raised  by  ordinance  two  to  three  feet  higher.  It  wilt  be 
rebuilt  with  the  sidewalk  lines  14  to  15  feet  above  the  low- 
water  mark  of  1847. 

The  first  street  filling  of  consequence  was  done  in  1856,  the 
material  used  being  the  sand  and  mud  dredged  up  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river  or  pared  from  its  banks,  as  the  channel  was 
widened  and  deepened  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  growing  lake 
traffic.  Previous  to  this,  the  north  bank  had  been  a  sloping, 
sedgy  marsh.  The  Court-house  square  and  the  neighboring 
streets  were  filled  to  grade  in  this  way.  Subsequently  the 
numerous  excavations  for  cellars  and  basements  supplied  all  the 
filling  required,  and  left  some  to  spare  to  make  new  ground 
eastward  of  Michigan  Avenue. 

About  six  miles  of  sewers  had  been  constructed  up  to  March, 
1854.  After  the  grade  had  been  established,  so  that  a  suffi- 
cient slope  could  be  obtained,  the  work  of  drainage  proceeded 
more  rapidly,  and  most  of  the  more  thickly-settled  portions  of 
the  city  were  sewered  by  the  middle  of  1857.  The  work  of 
making  good  streets  proceeded  more  slowly.  About  twenty-seven 
miles  of  planking  had  been  laid  down  to  the  close  of  1854,  and 
a  little  more  was  added  subsequently,  but  it  made  a  wretched 
road-way.  Even  State  and  Madison  Streets  were  impassable  in 
the  spring,  the  planks  having  been  broken  up  by  heavy  loads, 
and  required  constant  repairs  to  permit  even  an  empty  wagon 
to  proceed.  The  condition  of  many  other  leading  thoroughfares 
was  simply  detestable.  As  late  as  1857,  it  was  impossible  to  ride 
along  Dearborn  or  Clark  Streets  near  Monroe,  and  the  baggage 
of  persons  arriving  in  the  city  by  rail,  would  often  lie  in  the 


CITY    IMPROVEMENTS    IN   THE   RAILROAD   ERA.  87 

depot  for  several  days  together,  because  it  could  not  be  hauled 
through  the  miry  streets.  About  this  time  the  cobble-stone 
pavement  was  introduced  sparingly;  and  in  1856  was  laid  the 
first  square  of  the  wooden- block  pavement,  which  has  since 
been  used  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  every  thing  else  as  a  road- 
bed. 

The  dredging  out  of  the  river  was  followed  by  the  improve- 
ment of  its  banks.  Not  less  than  five  miles  of  dockage  was 
constructed,  while  the  pier  was  run  out  still  further,  that  step 
being  rendered  necessary  by  the  continual  accretion  of  sand 
brought  down  by  the  north-east  current  in  the  lake,  and  a 
light-house  was  built  in  1855,  at  a  distance  of  1950  feet  east 
from  the  point  from  which  the  pier  was  first  put  down.  This 
pier  is  on  the  north  side  of  the  channel.  The  breakwater  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  previously  mentioned,  formed  an 
adequate  protection  to  the  south  shore. 

Other  city  improvements  were  carried  out,  in  great  numbers. 
Several  additional  bridges  were  thrown  across  the  river.  The 
small  buildings  which  had  been  erected  in  the  corners  of  the 
Court-house  square,  in  the  earlier  days,  were  displaced  by  a  City 
Hall,  built  in  the  center  of  the  plat  in  1853,  that  was  enlarged 
in  1858,  and  the  old  Bridewell  building  on  Polk  Street,  near 
the  river,  was  put  up  for  the  occupancy  of  offenders  against  the 
peace  and  dignity  of  the  city.  The  Recorder's  Court  was  es- 
tablished in  1853,  and  in  1855  the  police  force  of  fifty-four 
men  was  first  organized  for  day  duty;  they  had  previously  been 
nothing  more  than  night  watchmen.  They  were  now  divided 
into  three  bodies,  corresponding  to  each  of  the  three  divisions 
of  the  city,  and  placed  in  the  three  market  halls — structures 
long  since  swept  away  by  the  remorseless  hand  of  progress. 
The  South  Division  Market  Hall  stood  at  the  north  end  of 


88  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

State  Street,  and  -was  abolished  in  1858 ;  the  West  Division 
Market  stood  on  West  Randolph  Street,  near  Desplaines,  and 
was  pulled  down  in  1864  or  '65.  The  North  Market  Hall,  on 
Dearborn  near  Kinzie,  stood  till  the  time  of  the  fire,  but  had 
long  been  disused.  These  three  buildings  were  of  brick,  and 
designed  to  be  of  great  accommodation  to  the  public.  They  were 
soon  found  to  be  nuisances,  and  were  abolished  accordingly. 

The  educational  system  of  the  city  was  thoroughy  reorgan- 
ized to  meet  the  growing  wants  of  the  juvenile  population.  The 
Franklin  and  Washington  schools — the  fourth  and  fifth  erected 
— had  been  established  in  1851.  The  Foster  branch,  and  the 
Rollingmill  school  were  added  in  1855;  the  Mosely  and  Og- 
den  were  added  in  1856 ;  and  the  important  addition  was 
made  of  a  high  school  for  the  further  instruction  of  the  best 
pupils  in  the  grammar  departments.  In  1857  the  Brown  and 
Foster  were  added  to  the  list  at  a  cost  of  $28,000  each,  making 
a  total  of  eleven  schools,  with  an  average  daily  attendance  of 
3354,  out  of  an  enrollment  of  10,786  pupils  for  that  year. 
The  first  public  evening  school  was  established  in  the  autumn 
of  1856,  in  the  North  Market  Hall.  At  this  time  it  was  es- 
timated that  Chicago  contained  about  17,100  children  of  school 
age,  of  which  8306  were  enrolled  as  pupils  in  the  public  schools, 
and  4400  were  found  in  attendance  in  fifty-six  private  schools, 
leaving  about  4400  unprovided  for. 

In  1854,  the  public  schools  were  first  organized  by  classify- 
ing the  pupils  according  to  their  merits,  as  ascertained  by  set 
examinations.  This  important  step  was  taken  under  the  rule 
of  John  C.  Dore,  appointed  in  May,  as  the  first  Superintendent 
of  Public  Schools.  The  same  year  the  office  of  School  Trus- 
tee was  abolished,  and  the  Board  of  Education  took  entire 
charge  of  the  schools.  Under  the  new  rule  the  High  School 


CITY   IMPROVEMENTS   IN   THE   RAILROAD   ERA.  89 

was  constructed  from  the  newly  discovered  marble,  found  at 
Athens,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  county ;  it  was  for  some 
years  the  most  handsome  structure  in  the  city.  In  March  1856, 
Mr:  Dore  resigned,  and  \V.  H.  Wells  succeeded  as  Superin- 
tendent. He  was  the  author  of  the  graded  course  of  instruc- 
tion which  is  still  in  use,  with  a  few  modifications,  in  the 
schools  of  Chicago,  as  well  as  in  thousands  of  others  in  the 
United  States.  The  Board  of  Education  was  reorganized  in 
1857,  and  the  number  of  members  increased  to  fifteen. 

The  Chicago  Reform  School  was  opened  in  November,  1856, 
for  the  reception  of  boys  who  were  either  without  parents, 
or  needed  special  care  to  prevent  them  from  becoming  vicious 
men. 

A  still  higher  class  of  instruction  was  also  liberally  provided 
for  during  this  period.  The  Catholic  University  (St.  Mary  of 
the  Lake),  established  in  1844,  was  the  only  one  in  the  city 
previous  to  the  railroad  era.  In  1852,  the  North-western 
(Methodist  Episcopal)  University  was  originated,  and  removed 
the  next  year  to  Evanston,  twelve  miles  north  of  the  city. 
The  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  was  organized  in  1855,  and  also 
located  at  Evanston.  The  University  of  Chicago  (Baptist)  was 
founded  in  1855,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  donating  the  land  on 
which  the  buildings  were  subsequently  erected.  The  Congre- 
gationalist  Theological  Seminary,  near  Union  Park,  and  the 
Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary,  in  the  North  Division, 
were  founded  subsequently. 

This  brings  us  to  the  churches,  which  exhibit  an  equally  sur- 
prising increase.  In  1852,  and  the  five  following  years,  we 
find  springing  into  existence  the  following  societies:  Methodist, 
7  (one  African);  Presbyterian,  3;  Catholic,  7;  Episcopal,  3; 
Baptist,  4;  Congregational,  4;  Universalist,  1;  Swedenbor- 


90  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GEEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

gian,  1;  German  Evangelical,  2;  Swedish  Evangelical,  1;  .Re- 
formed Dutch,  1 ;  Mariner's  Bethel,  1.  Total,  35. 

The  Young  Men's  Library  Association  was  incorporated  in 
1857,  and  the  rooms,  located  on  Washington  Street,  formed  a 
much  prized  gathering  place  for  the  intellectual  cultivation  of  its 
members;  the  library  was  a  good  one.  The  Mechanics  Insti- 
tute was  also  organized  about  the  same  time,  and  succeeded  in 
gathering  a  valuable  library,  but  died  out  through  internal 
dissensions.  The  Chicago  Historical  Society  was  organized  in 
1856,  with  nineteen  members,  occupying  rooms  on  the  corner 
of  Wells  and  Kinzie  Streets.  The  Academy  of  Sciences  was 
founded  in  1857,  and  the  formation  of  a  museum  commenced, 
on  the  south-east  corner  of  Clark  and  Lake  Streets. 

Rice's  Theater,  established  in  1847,  burned  down  in  1849-50, 
and  reopened  on  the  1st  of  February,  1851,  was  the  only  the- 
ater in  which  English  plays  were  presented,  till  August  4, 
1855,  when  Levi  J.  North  opened  one  on  Monroe  Street,  near 
Wells,  the  building  having  been  undertaken  by  Mr.  N.  while 
he  was  visiting  the  place  with  his  circus,  in  the  preceding 
April.  In  1856  the  place  was  rebuilt  as  an  amphitheater,  and 
a  year  afterward  changed  back  to  the  theater  form.  It  was 
finally  closed  in  1859,  having  never  paid  expenses.  McVick- 
er's  Theater  was  opened  November  5,  1857. 

In  1852  the  favorite  concert-room  was  the  old  Metropolitan 
Hall,  on  the  corner  of  Randolph  and  Lasalle  Streets.  This 
was  soon  superseded  by  a  room  in  the  Tremont  House,  where 
Adelina  Patti  sung  in  1854,  and  several  other  notables  after- 
ward. In  1852  a  German  society  opened  a  small  hall  as  a 
theater,  on  West  Randolph  Street,  near  Canal,  and  this  being 
burned  down,  they  took  a  room  over  a  blacksmith's  shop,  on 
Dearborn  Street,  Washington,  in  1853-4,  which  was  for  a  long 


CITY  IMPROVEMENTS   IN   THE   RAILEOAD   EEA.  91 

time  sacred  to  the  combined  shades  of  Thespis  and  Gambrinus. 
In  1855  the  same  society  built  the  German  Theater,  on  the 
corner  of  North  Wells  and  Indiana  Streets,  and  there  gave  the 
first  purely  musical  entertainment  ever  presented  in  Chicago. 

Two  newspapers  were  added  during  this  period  to  the  then 
limited  press  list  of  Chicago.  The  Democratic  Press  was  estab- 
lished in  1852  by  Messrs.  Bross,  Scripps  &  Spears,  and  was  the 
first  paper  in  the  city  to  give  attention  to  the  commercial  impor- 
tance of  the  place,  and  open  a  column  in  which  the  markets  were 
reported.  In  June,  1854,  the  Young  America  was  started,  but 
changed  to  the  Chicago  Times  two  months  afterward,  under  the 
proprietorship  of  Cook,  Cameron  &  Co.  J.  W.  Sheahan  be- 
came editor  in  1856. 

Previous  to  1852  there  were  scarcely  more  than  sixty  build- 
ings in  the  city  constructed  of  brick  or  stone;  nearly  all  were 
wooden  structures,  and  grouped  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
intersection  of  State  and  Madison  Streets,  the  two  principal  sec- 
tion lines.  Up  to  this  time  the  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants 
did  not  regard  themselves  as  settlers ;  they  belonged  elsewhere, 
and  their  buildings  were  of  the  cheapest  kind,  made  after  the 
pattern  of  the  old  balloon  frame  first  raised  in  1832.  After  the 
introducti<fb  of  railroads,  the  people  understood  better  the  value 
of  the  position,  which  was  brought  home  to  their  minds  by  the 
fact  of  a  much  larger  tax  list,  and  they  began  to  make  more 
permanent  improvements.  In  1854,  not  less  than  twenty -five 
millions  of  bricks  were  used,  mostly  in  building,  and  fifty  mil- 
lions in  1856,  while  the  receipts  of  stone  rose  from  19,901 
cubic  yards,  in  1851,  to  122,842  yards  in  1857.  Of  course  the 
principal  portion  of  this  material  was  used  in  the  older  districts, 
working  a  great  change  in  the  aspect  of  the  business  parts  of 
the  city.  Lake,  South  Water,  and  Randolph  Streets,  and  even 


02  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GEEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

Washington,  with  the  cross  streets,  as  far  south  as  Madison, 
rapidly  took  on  the  more  solid  phase,  while  the  north*  side  near 
the  river  shared  in  this  change.  Meanwhile  the  lumber  piles 
were  drawn  upon  more  extensively  than  ever  for  the  construc- 
tion of  wooden  buildings  in  the  outskirts,  and  all  the  leading 
thoroughfares  to  a  distance  of  two  miles  out,  in  each  direction 
from  the  Court-house,  were  thickly  strewn  with  the  evidences 
of  civilization.  Indeed,  in  1855,  building  had  become  almost  a 
mania,  every  street  being  blocked  up  with  bricks  or  lumber,  or 
with  the  wooden  structures  themselves,  which  were  being 
moved  out  to  the  suburbs  to  make  room  for  more  imposing 
architectural  piles  in  the  places  where  the  trade  of  the  city  cen- 
tered. That  year,  1855,  was  the  one  in  which  house-moving 
first  became  a  business  in  Chicago. 

The  year  1856  witnessed  the  erection  of  7  churches,  5  hotels, 
the  City  Armory,  City  Hospital,  and  High  School,  145  stores, 
many  of  which  were  five  stories  high,  and  several  hundred 
residences,  about  2000  of  which  were  in  the  West  Division. 
The  cost  of  these  improvements  was  as  follows:  business 
blocks,  $1,781,900;  residences,  $1,164,190;  hotels,  $315,000; 
churches,  seminaries,  etc.,  $311,000 ;  other  buildings,  $1,500,000 ; 
city  improvements,  $427,434.  Total,  $5,708,624.  In  1857  the 
total  amounted  to  $6,423,518,  of  which  $1,940,000  was  for 
business  blocks  and  buildings;  $869,000  for  first-class  resi- 
dences; and  $204,000  for  churches.  The  cost  of  the  improve- 
ments effected  in  the  four  years  ending  with  1857,  was 
318,306,300,  and  from  1852  to  1857,  inclusive,  over  twenty 
millions  of  dollars. 

In  1856  these  buildings  were  lighted  with  60,000,000  cubic 
feet  of  gas.  There  were  nearly  600  street  lamps,  and  2500 
private  consumers. 


CITY  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  RAILROAD  ERA.  93 

Of  course  the  selling  value  of  property  rose  rapidly  under  this 
tide  of  commerce  and  improvement.  At  a  moderate  estimate  it 
increased  fully  two  and  three-quarter  times,  between  1852  and 
1857.  Indeed,  a  perfect  real-estate  mania  ensued  after  the 
departure  of  the  cholera  in  1854,  which  involved  nearly  every 
one  in  the  city,  and  was  almost  a  second  edition  of  the  specula- 
tive days  of  twenty  years  previously.  Nor  was  the  mania 
confined  to  the  resident  population.  During  that  year,  and 
the  two  following,  a- large  part  of  the  country  around  the  city 
was  sub-divided  up  by  real  estate  dealers,  and  plats  were  ex- 
hibited in  all  the  eastern  cities,  where  almost  fabulous  sums  were 
realized  on  lots  that  have  not  even  yet  been  occupied — some  of 
them  under  water,  out  in  Lake  Michigan,  or  in  the  swamps  of 
Calumet.  It  was  enough  to  say  that  a  piece  of  land  was  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Chicago  to  make  it  salable  at  almost  any  price 
asked  for  it,  and  thousands  of  men  and  women  at  the  East  in- 
vested their  savings  in  so-called  Chicago  lots.  Such  an  over- 
strain could  not  last  long ;  the  true  values  of  real  estate  were 
discounted  too  far  into  the  future. 

The  following  shows  the  official  valuation  of  property  in  the 
city  during  this  period,  with  the  city  taxation : 

Year.  Heal.  Personal.  Total.  Taxes. 

1852,  $8,189,069   $2,272,645   $10,461,714    $76,949 

1853,  13,130,177    3,711,154    16,841,831    135,663 

1855,  21,637,500    5,355,393    26,992,893    206,209 

1856,  25,892,308    5,843,776    31,736,084    396,652 

In  1856  the  area  of  the  city  was  about  18  square  miles;  this 
would  give  on  a  one-third  valuation  a  total  value  of  $8,260  per 
acre,  or  about  $1,130  worth  of  property  to  each  of  the  84,113 
residents  of  the  city. 


94  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


XVI.    THE   PANIC   OF    1857. 

TN  September,  1857,  the  bubble  burst.  A  wave  of  distrust 
-*-  throbbed  across  the  bosom  of  the  hitherto  placid  sea  of 
universal  confidence,  and  there  was  a  storm  that  stayed  not  its 
course  till  it  had  laid  thousands  of  business  houses  in  ruins,  and 
effected  an  immense  reduction  of  prices  and  profits,  of  capital 
and  production,  throughout  the  world. 

The  full  effects  of  this  storm  were  felt  in  Chicago,  but  it  is 
due  to  her  as  a  city  to  say  that  the  unstable  inflation  that 
resulted  in  such  wide-spread  disaster,  was  not  only  not  confined 
to  that  city,  but  had  not  even  its  origin  there.  The  Genius  of 
speculation  had  o'erspread  the  whole  land  with  his  wings,  and 
the  lurid  shadow  was  even  deeper  at  the  East  than  at  the  West. 
Even  the  undue  expansion  in  Western  real  estate  had  its  origin 
in  the  East,  and  it  was  the  capital  of  the  seaboard  that  formed 
the  basis  on  which  those  values  were  bid  up  by  dwellers  on  the 
Atlantic  slope.  The  great  mass  of  the  Western  people  were 
nobly  doing  their  duty  through  that  period  of  inflation,  bending 
all  their  energies  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or  the  distribu- 
tion of  its  products  to  those  who  needed  them.  A  comparatively 
small  number  were  engaged  in  the  blowing  process,  which  has 
been  unjustly  described  as  peculiarly  a  Chicago  institution. 
The  great  break-up  began  at  the  East,  and  was  most  severely 
felt  there,  as  its  effects  were  also  the  most  lasting  in  that  region. 
Indeed,  it  was  the  West  that  ultimately  righted  the  whole  con- 
tinent by  its  strength,  as  it  had  been  the  occasion,  not  the  cause, 
of  the  panic  that  wrought  such  wide-spread  ruin. 

But  Chicago  suffered— and  deeply.  The  first  effect  was  felt 
in  the  value  of  money.  The  circulating  medium  in  Chicago 


THE  PANIC  OF    1857.  95 

was  principally  based  on  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  stocks,  many 
of  which  suuk  to  seventy  cents  on  the  dollar  within  a  week 
after  mutual  confidence  was  destroyed  by  Eastern  failures. 
The  Chicago  banks  continued  to  take  this  currency  at  nominal 
par,  but  their  par  was  never  less  than  ten,  and  generally  fifteen 
per  cent-  below  the  par  that  would  obtain  specie  on  presenta- 
tion of  the  paper  at  a  bank  counter.  St.  Louis,  like  New 
York,  kept  up  to  the  gold  par,  and  in  so  doing  blocked  the 
wheels  of  her  commerce  so  effectually  that  she  occupied  several 
more  years  than  did  Chicago  in  recovering  from  the  shock. 

The  Chicago  banks  generally  redeemed  their  circulation  in 
coin,  though  the  Eastern  distrust  in  the  wheat-crop  (which  had 
been  pronounced  a  failure)  caused  a  very  general  withdrawal  of 
Eastern  currency  that  had  been  sent  out  to  move  the  crops,  and 
left  them  bare.  The  Chicago  merchants  were  equally  honora- 
ble. When  they  found  that  they  could  not  get  Eastern  ex- 
change to  pay  their  indebtedness,  they  bought  the  wheat  which 
New  York  men  had  refused,  sent  it  East,  and  thus  made  ex- 
change for  themselves.  Chicago  business  men  really  stood  by 
each  other  nobly  through  that  crisis;  and  hence,  though  there 
was  wide-spread  loss,  there  was  but  little  failure.  The  num- 
ber of  Chicago  houses  that  yielded  up  the  ghost  was  very  small, 
while  hundreds  of  Eastern  houses  of  a  century's  standing  went 
down  with  a  crash  before  the  howling  blast. 

But  if  general  business  was  only  staggered,  speculation  was 
destroyed.  The  effects  on  the  real-estate  market  were  fearful, 
and  the  building  business  suffered  correspondingly.  The  de- 
preciation of  prices  in  corner  lots  was  great  in  the  winter  of 
1857,  but  it  was  much  greater  in  1858  and  1859,  as  payments 
matured  which  could  not  be  met.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
real  estate  in  the  city  had  been  bought  on  canal  time — the  same 


96  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

terras  as  those  on  which  Dr.  Egan  used  to  prescribe  his  pills 
in  moments  of  abstractedness — one-quarter  down,  and  the  bal- 
ance in  one,  two,  and  three  years.  They  had  depended  upon  a 
continual  advance  in  quoted  values  to  meet  those  payments,  and 
found  that  they  could  not  even  sell  at  a  ruinous  sacrifice.  Great 
numbers  of  workers  left  the  city  for  want  of  employment,  and 
those  who  remained  were  obliged  to  go  into  narrowed  quarters 
to  reduce  expenses.  This  caused  a  great  many  residences  and 
stores  to  be  vacated,  and  brought  about  a  reduction  in  rents  on 
those  still  occupied,  which  impoverished  even  those  who  were 
able  to  hold  on  to  their  property.  Many  hundreds  of  lots  and 
houses  were  abandoned  by  those  who  had  made  only  partial  pay- 
ments, and  the  holders  of  mortgages  needed  no  snap-judgment 
to  enable  them  to  take  possession. 

A  stop  was  at  once  put  to  the  erection  of  buildings.  Several 
blocks  were  left  unfinished  for  years,  and  some  commenced  were 
never  finished  by  the  original  owners.  As  an  instance  of  the 
severe  loss  entailed  in  this  direction,  we  may  cite  the  case  of 
Alexander  -Lloyd,  Mayor  of  Chicago  in  1840.  He  was  worth 
$75,000  in  1857,  and  on  the  strength  of  that  borrowed  $50,000 
to  erect  an  iron-front  building  on  the  north-west  corner  of  Lake 
and  Wells  Streets.  The  walls  were  almost  up  when  the  crash 
came.  He  was  obliged  to  suspend,  lost  his  title  to  the  land  and 
building,  and  died,  some  years  afterward,  an  object  of  charity. 
His  poor  widow  was  knocked  down,  in  1871,  by  a  runaway 
horse  in  the  West  Division,  and  died  the  next  day. 


LIFTING   UP.  97 


XVII.    LIFTING  UP. 

this  time  till  the  breaking  out  of  the^war  of  the  re- 
bell  ion,  in  1861,  the  city  was  almost  stationary.  There 
was  a  slight  increase  in  the  population  and  in  the  volume  of 
Lusiness,  but,  as  compared  with  the  five  or  six  years  preceding 
the  panic,  the  progress  was  exceedingly  slow.  A  succession  of 
bad  crops  made  the  West  poor,  and  limited  its  commerce  so 
much  that  Chicago  was  nearly  at  a  stand-still. 

But  though  poor,  the  people  of  Chicago  neither  lost  faith  nor 
tnergy.  If  new  buildings  were  not  wanted  in  great  numbers 
to  accommodate  an  increasing  population,  the  old  ones  needed 
to  be  rejuvenated  and  replaced  by  better  structures,  against  the 
time  when  all  felt  there  would  be  a  general  revival.  The  peo- 
ple acted,  as  a  whole,  like  the  individual  merchant  who  employs 
his  spare  time  in  taking  account  of  stock,  noting  deficiencies, 
and  putting  his  store  in  order,  so  that  he  can  attend  to  business 
all  the  better  when  it  does  come. 

The  plan  for  raising  the  grade  of  the  city,  so  as  to  procure  an 
efficient  drainage,  adopted  in  1855  and  pressed  forward  in  1856 
and  1857,  was  carried  out  vigorously  during  the  years  1859  and 
1860.  Three  men  deserve  honorable  mention  in  this  connec- 
tion: E.  S.  Chesborough,  who  suggested  the  raising  of  the 
grade,  and  carried  it  through  in  spite  of  all  opposition ;  Harry 
Fox,  whose  machines  straightened  out  the  river  and  harbor, 
and  carried  the  sand  and  mud  into  the  streets  to  change  the 
grade;  and  George  M.  Pullman,  since  better  known  as  the 
sleeping-car  patentee,  who  began  the  work  of  lifting  up  bodily 
the  buildings  that  had  previously  been  erected  on  a  lower  grade 
}ine.  Mr.  Pullman  began  in  1859,  and  soon  had  the  Matteson 
9 


98  CHICAGO   AFD  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGBATION. 

and  Tremont  Hotels,  a  long  line  of  ponderous  w -.rehouses  on 
South  Water  Street,  and  of  wholesale  stores  on  Lake  Street, 
lifted  up  by  jack-screws,  and  made  permanently  higher  by 
bringing  up  substantial  masonry  or  brickwork  from  below. 
Other  contractors  were  at  work  in  this  direction,  but  we  believe 
Mr.  Pullman  was  the  first  to  show  how  a  whole  block  of  brick 
or  stone  could  be  lifted  up,  with  all  its  contents,  without  even 
disturbing  the  operations  of  business  inside,  just  as  well  as  the 
smaller  wooden  structures  that  had  been  taken  in  hand  by  others. 

This  wholesale  rising  up  out  of  the  prairie  mud  gained  for 
Chicago  a  notoriety  equal  to  that  she  had  attained  by  virtue  of 
her  commercial  importance.  The  journals  of  the  East  and  of 
Europe  were  burdened  with  descriptions  of  the  wonderful  city, 
which  was  achieving  a  feat  almost  equal  to  that  performed  by 
the  man  who  lifted  himself  up  by  tugging  at  his  boot-straps. 
This,  too,  was  the  epoch  of  uneven  sidewalks,  about  which  the 
Eastern  papers  used  to  be  as  facetious  as  they  were  subsequently 
over  the  odors  of  the  Chicago  River.  It  used  to  be  reported 
that  when  the  genuine  Chicagoan  visited  New  York  he  found 
himself  unable  to  walk  on  a  level  surface ;  he  was  obliged  to 
turn  into  the  adjacent  buildings,  every  half  block  or  so,  and 
run  up  and  down  a  stairway,  for  the  sake  of  variety.  It  was, 
indeed,  a  period  of  npheaval  of  the  most  unpleasant  kind  for 
pedestrians,  as  the  single  buildings  here  and  there  were  raised 
to  grade,  and  the  sidewalk  in  front  lifted  to  correspond,  while 
those  on  either  side  were  on  the  old  level,  a  yard  or  more  below. 
How  the  drunken  men  of  that  epoch  managed  to  stumble  home 
at  night  without  breaking  their  necks,  is  a  mystery  yet  un- 
solved. It  took  a  long  time  to  bring  up  the  buildings  to  a 
uniform  height  in  the  business  portions  of  the  city. 

While  the  greater  number  of  the  buildings  were   simply 


LIFTING   UP.  99 

raised,  a  large  proportion  of  the  wooden  buildings  were  moved 
away  on  rollers  to  the  suburbs,  and  their  places  supplied  by 
noble  piles  of  brick  or  stone,  built  to  the  new  grade.  Mean- 
while the  streets  were  gradually  filled  up  and  sewered,  and 
supplied  with  pipes  for  water  and  gas;  and  then  the  people 
began  to  wish  for  a  better  roadway  than  was  supplied  by  the 
old  planking  method.  Many  of  the  leading  thoroughfares  were 
covered  with  macadam,  most  of  the  stone  for  which  was  broken 
by  the  prisoners  in  the  Bridewell,  though  a  crushing-mill  was 
also  used  at  the  quarries  near  the  corner  of  Indiana  Street  and 
Western  Avenue.  The  cobble-stone  pavement  was  tried  on 
several  streets,  especially  Lake  and  State.  The  wooden-block 
pavement  was  more  slowly  introduced.  A  small  piece  of  about 
800  square  yards  was  laid  in  1856  on  Wells  Street,  between 
Lake  and  South  Water,  and  another  piece  in  1857  on  Washing- 
ton Street,  between  Clark  and  Lasalle.  The  experiment  proved 
a  success,  and  Clark  Street  was  paved  from  Lake  to  Polk,  in 
1858-9;  East  Lake  Street  was  paved  with  it  in  1861.  Since 
then  it  has  been  the  favorite,  and  used  on  all  the  principal 
thoroughfares,  as  fast  as  they  have  been  filled  and  improved. 

Previous  to  1859  the  omnibus  was  the  only  available  vehicle 
for  those  who  could  not  command  an  exclusive  conveyance. 
In  that  year  the  Chicago  City  Railway  Company  laid  down  rails 
on  State  from  Lake  Street  south  to  the  city  limits,  on  Madison 
•west  to  Reuben  Street,  and  on  Randolph  Street  nearly  to  the 
city  limits.  The  same  jiear  the  North  Chicago  City  Railway 
Company  laid  rails  on  north  Clark  Street  from  the  river 
to  the  city  limits;  also  on  Larrabee  Street  and  Clybourne 
Avenue.  On  these  lines  horse  cars  have  been  run  daily  ever 
since,  with  but  slight  interruptions  for  repairs,  and  several  ex- 
tensions have  been  made  to  the  system  then  established. 


100 


CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


The  wholesale  trade  and  manufactures  of  the  city,  grew  much 
more  rapidly  during  this  period  than  did  its  produce  business. 
The  crops  of  1857  and  '58  were  poor,  and  the  farmers  had  less 
ability  to  purchase  than  heretofore;  but  the  merchants  of  Chi- 
cago were  enterprising  enough  to  try  to  extend  their  business 
over  a  wider  area,  and  by  their  efforts  the  city  daily  grew  in 
favor  with  the  western  buyers,  many  of  whom  had  previously 
procured  all  their  supplies  from  New  York. 

The  Custom-house  and  post-office  was  built  by  the  United 
States  Government  in  1858—9. 

The  population  was  about  93,000  in  1857.  The  next  year 
it  had  fallen  to  80,000,  principally  owing  to  the  exodus  of 
workers  out  of  employment.  In  1859  the  depletion  was  par- 
tially recovered  from,  the  population  being  about  90,000,  and 
in  1860  the  census  showed  a  total  of  109,263  persons  in  the 
city.  The  valuations  of  property  exhibited  about  the  same  pro- 
portion of  increase,  being  $31,736,084  in  1856,  and  $37,053,512 
in  I860— an  augment  of  nearly  17  per  cent,  in  four  years. 

The  following  table  shows  the  movement  of  the  produce  busi- 
ness during  this  period : 


Grain  received,  bu. 
Grain  shipped, 
Hogs  received, 
Hogs  packed, 
Cattle  received,     ,. 
Cattle  packed,        4 
Flour  man' ft,  bbls. 
Lumber  received,  M. 
Wool  received,  Ibs. 
Canal  tolls,  . 

Customs, 


1857.  . 

1858. 

1859. 

18CO. 

22,327,076 

23,972,765 

19,805,147 

36,390,951 

18,032,678 

20,035,166 

16,771,812 

31,108,759 

214,223 

540,486 

271,204 

392,864 

99,262 

179,684 

151,339 

271,805 

48,524 

140,534 

111,694 

177,101 

34,675 

45,503 

51,606 

34,623 

96,000 

140,003 

165,520 

194,668 

459,639 

278,943 

302,845 

262,495 

1,106,820 

1,053,626 

918,319 

859,248 

$106,352 

$95,184 

$81,078 

$63,637 

82,528 

24,820 

70,820 

49,658 

THE  REBELLION — CAMP  DOUGLAS.          101 

The  manufactures  of  the  city  had  equaled  a  total  product 
valued  at  $15,515,063,  in  1856.  In  1860  the  United  States 
census  gave  a  total  of  $13,555,671,  employing  5593  workers, 
on  an  invested  capital  of  $5,571,025,  for  Cook  County.  Of  this 
amount,  about  $11,740,684  worth  of  products  was  manufactured 
in  Chicago  on  a  capital  of  $5,422,225. 

During  1858,  and  the  three  following  years,  a  total  of  sixteen 
new  churches  were  built,  and  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation organized,  March  28,  1858,  which  has  since  been  a 
wonderful  power  for  good.  The  Newberry  and  Skinner  schools 
were  erected  in  the  North  and  "West  Divisions,  in  1859,  and  the 
same  year  young  ladies  were  first  appointed  head  assistants  in 
the  public  schools.  In  1860  the  graded  course  of  instruction 
was  introduced  by  Superintendent  Wells.  The  number  of 
pupils  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  at  the  end  of  each  year 
was  as  follows:  8577  in  1856;  10,786  in  1857;  12,873  in  1858; 
14,199  in  1859;  and  16,441  in  1860,  of  whom  15,159  were 
under  fifteen  years  of  age.  In  1860  there  were  about  7750 
children  attending  private  schools,  and  it  was  estimated  that 
not  less  than  3000  of  school  age  were  totally  unprovided  with 
instruction. 


XVIII.   THE  REBELLION— CAMP  DOUGLAS. 

the  14th  of  April,  1861,  the  first  gun  was  fired  on  Fort 
Sumter,  which  was  evacuated  by  the  United  States  troops 
on  the  next  day.  Quick  as  the  lightning  flashed  the  intelligence 
over  the  wires,  was  the  response  made  in  every  part  of  the  land, 
and  in  none  more  heartily  than  in  Chicago.  From  the  work- 


102          «HICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

shop  and  the  desk,  men  rushed  forth  to  form  companies  and 
regiments  for  the  war,  even  before  the  Government  asked  their 
services.  The  scenes  in  the  streets  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 

On  the  19th  of  April  a  telegram  was  received  from  Governor 
Yates,  by  Brigadier-General  R.  K.  Swift,  notifying  him  to  raise 
an  armed  force  as  quickly  as  possible.  At  11  o'clock  on  the 
21st,  the  General  left  Chicago  with  a  force  of  595  men  and 
four  six-pounder  pieces  of  artillery.  Among  these  were  the 
Chicago  Light  Artillery,  and  Companies  A  and  B,  Chicago 
Zouaves.  This  force  instantly  went  on  guard  duty  at  Cairo,  and 
zealously  enough,  for  their  hearts  were  in  the  work,  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  they  did  much  more  harm  to  themselves  at 
first  than  to  the  rebels,  as  many  of  the  men  were  totally  unaccus- 
tomed to  the  use  of  fire-arms.  In  May,  1861,  the  Chicago  Dra- 
goons and  the  Washington  Light  Cavalry  were  organized,  and 
the  work  of  recruiting  proceeded  even  more  rapidly  than  was 
desired  by  the  Government.  The  Seward  idea  that  the  rebel- 
lion could  be  put  down  in  three  months,  with  75,000  men,  was 
not  generally  accepted  by  the  people,  who  believed  from  the 
first  that  all  the  power  of  the  North  must  be  exerted  to  end  the 
war.  Hence  several  companies  and  regiments  were  raised  and 
tendered  to  the  Government  which  were  not  accepted,  and  the 
discouragement  experienced  at  that  time  told  forcibly  when  more 
men  were  called  for,  as  it  was  seen  that  they  were  really  wanted. 
On  the  17th  of  June  the  Nineteenth  Regiment  was  organised; 
next  the  Irish  Brigade,  and  the  old  Hecker  Regiment.  In 
August  the  Yates'  Sharpshooters,  the  Scotch  Regiment,  and 
others,  were  formed,  partially  in  Chicago,  and  the  Twelfth 
Illinois  Cavalry  was  also  accepted  in  August  or  September. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1861,  Colonel  Joseph  H. 
%  Tucker  was  appointed  by  Governor  Yates  to  the  command  of 


THE  REBELLION — CAMP  DOUGLAS.          103 

the  Northern  District  of  the  State,  with  orders  to  establish  a 
camp  at  Chicago  for  the  rendezvous  and  instruction  of  volunteers. 
He  immediately  selected  a  site  at  Cottage  Grove,  near  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  and  named  it  Camp  Douglas,  in  honor  of 
the  Senator  to  whom  the  ground  had  formerly  belonged.  The 
camp  contained  between  sixty  and  seventy  acres  of  ground. 
Here  barracks  were  constructed  capable  of  accommodating  about 
8000  men,  and  a  large  number  of  troops  mustered  into  the 
service.  In  February,  1862,  some  eight  or  nine  thousand  pris- 
oners arrived,  who  had  been  captured  at  the  battle  of  Fort 
Donelson.  They  were  placed  in  camp,  and  guarded  by  the 
Federal  troops.  Soon  after  this  Colonel  Mulligan  took  com- 
mand of  the  camp,  having  been  ordered  home  to  reorganize  his 
regiment,  the  Irish  Brigade,  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  Mo. 
Early  in  June,  1862,  two  regiments  of  three-months'  men 
were  raised  in  Chicago  for  garrison  duty  in  Camp  Douglas,  and 
Colonel  Tucker  reassumed  command.  Soon  after  this  came  the 
paroled  troops  which  had  been  captured  at  Harper's  Ferjy, 
and  with  them  Brigadier-General  Tyler,  to  whom  had  been  con- 
fided their  management.  They  were  supposed  to  be  under  orders 
for  the  Indian  frontier,  but  remained  in  Chicago.  Then  began 
the  exciting  history  of  Camp  Douglas.  The  rule  of  General 
Tyler  was  that  of  a  man  of  iron,  without  any  of  the  elasticity  of 
steel,  and  the  men  were  very  much  dissatisfied.  They  did  not 
believe  that  they  had  a  right  to  be  treated  as  prisoners,  or  even 
compelled  to  do  garrison  duty  until  exchanged.  Hence  fre- 
quent troubles,  which  culminated  in  burning  of  barracks  and 
attempts  at  escape.  The  exchange  and  removal  was  a  work  of 
time,  and  during  that  whole  period  the  citizens  of  Chicago 
slept  insecurely.  They  felt  that  a  volcano  existed  at  camp 
which  might  at  any  time  break  forth  and  overwhelm  the  city. 


104  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

These  fears  were,  however,  groundless.  The  soldiers  wished 
not  to  do  more  than  testify  their  sense  of  the  wrongs  which 
they  believed  themselves  to  have  suffered,  and  when  the  rigor- 
ous discipline  was  relaxed  the  burnings  ceased. 

The  prisoners  were  still  in  Camp  Douglas  when  the  call  was 
issued  for  six  hundred  thousand  troops,  and  the  rapidly  aug- 
menting volunteer  companies  and  regiments  were  quartered 
outside  the  camp,  presenting  the  novel  sight  of  tents  dotted  all 
over  the  surrounding  region  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  The 
three  Board  of  Trade  regiments,  the  Irish  Legion,  Van  Ar- 
mau's  Regiment,  the  Railroad  Regiment,  with  several  battery 
companies,  will  be  remembered  as  thus  located,  and  the  chal- 
lenge of  their  sentinels  was  heard  at  every  step  for  the  space  of 
several  miles.  A  more  permanent  exterior  was  afterward  ef- 
fected when,  on  the  arrival  of  the  paroled  troops,  it  was  found 
that  the  camp  proper  was  insufficient  for  their  accommodation, 
and  the  fair  grounds  immediately  westward  were  secured.  On 
these  grounds  barracks  were  erected,  to  which  were  assigned 
the  Ninth  Vermont,  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-seventh  New 
York,  and  another  regiment.  On  their  departure  most  of  those 
barracks  that  had  not  been  burned,  were  pulled  down  and  the 
limits  of  the  camp  shrunk  down  to  the  original  boundaries. 

In  the  autumn  of  1862  Brigadier-General  Ammon  took  com- 
mand, the  Harper's  Ferry  paroled  troops  departed,  and  another 
camp  full  of  prisoners  arrived  just  on  the  edge  of  winter. 
Being  used  to  a  warmer  climate,  they  were  but  indifferently 
fitted  to  stand  the  hardships  of  barrack  life  in  what  was,  to 
them,  the  far  North,  and  they  died  off  like  rotten  sheep  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  many  noble  ladies  interested  themselves 
in  alleviating  the  sufferings  of  the  prisoners;  and  their  guard, 
while  doing  their  duty  to  the  Government  by  insuring  their 


THE  REBELLION — CAMP  DOUGLAS.         105 

safe  keeping,  were  yet  unremitting  in  their  attentions,  and  suf- 
fered themselves,  in  consequence  of  the  want  of  proper  means 
for  keeping  up  the  animal  heat. 

In  March,  1863,  the  camp  was  cleared,  save  of  a  few  pris- 
oners who  were  too  sick  to  leave,  and  enough  of  Federal  troops 
to  guard  and  attend  to  them,  and  keep  the  post.  Two  com- 
panies of  the  Scotch  Regiment,  and  a  few  men  of  the  Ninth  Ver- 
mont were  all  that  remained  of  the  immense  numbers  which 
had  so  lately  trodden  the  mud  of  Camp  Douglas,  and  shivered 
beneath  its  thin  board  roofs.  Up  to  this  time  fully  thirty  thou- 
sand troops  had  been  recruited,  organized,  drilled,  and  furnished 
with  equipments  at  Camp  Douglas,  besides  which,  it  had  served 
as  a  stronghold  for  confining  about  seventeen  thousand  rebel 
prisoners,  and  for  holding  about  eight  thousand  of  those  pa- 
roled at  Harper's  Ferry. 

During  the  latter  part  of  1863,  Camp  Douglas  was  again 
occupied  as  a  military  prison,  an  average  of  some  five  thousand 
confederates  being  confined  there.  Colonel  C.  V.  DeLand,  of 
the  First  Michigan  Sharpshooters,  was  made  post  commandant, 
and  improved  the  camp  at  a  total  expense  of  about  $35,000. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  year  he  was  relieved  by  Brigadier- 
General  Orme,  at  which  time  there  were  1800  Union  men  in 
camp.  May  2d,  1864,  the  command  devolved  upon  Colonel 
J.  C.  Strong,  of  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  and  in  July  his 
successor,  Colonel  B.  J.  Sweet,  arrived  from  Washington  and 
took  charge.  Colonel  Sweet  caused  the  whole  of  the  prisoners' 
barracks  to  be  raised  several  feet  from  the  ground,  to  prevent 
the  occupants  from  boring  their  way  out.  Many  of  them  had 
previously  escaped  in  this  way.  He  also  made  large  additions 
to  the  number  of  barracks,  and  erected  warehouses  for  the  re- 
ception of  stores. 


106  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

The  number  of  prisoners  now  increased  so  rapidly  that  more 
barracks  needed  to  be  erected  for  them,  and  the  force  of  a  little 
over  1000  men  belonging  to  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps  was 
found  too  small  to  keep  them  safely.  They  were  accordingly 
reinforced  in  August,  by  the  One  Hundred  and  Sixth  Pennsyl- 
vania (100  day)  Infantry,  and  on  the  approach  of  the  National 
Democratic  Convention,  the  guard  was  further  strengthened  by 
the  arrival  of  166  men,  composing  the  Twenty-fourth  Ohio 
Battery,  armed  with  Parrott  guns. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1864,  there  were  5649  rebel  prisoners 
in  camp,  and  nearly  7500  were  received  during  the  year,  most  of 
whom  were  souvenirs  of  Hood's  defeats.  During  the  year,  63, 
including  one  Cherokee  Indian,  were  released  on  taking  the  oath 
of  allegiance.  The  mortality  among  the  prisoners  was  high, 
1156  during  the  year;  they  suffered  severely  from  small-pox, 
besides  other  diseases:  11,780  were  in  camp  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1865. 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  the  discharge  of  the  prisoners  com- 
menced. The  others  soon  followed  on  the  collapse  of  the  re- 
bellion, 8400  being  released  in  May,  and  returned  to  their 
homes.  Only  about  200  remained  in  August,  and  most  of 
these  were  on  the  sick-list  in  the  hospital.  The  camp  was 
finally  abandoned  about  the  close  of  the  year. 

In  its  best  estate  Camp  Douglas  covered  about  sixty  acres  of 
ground.  The  number  of  prisoners  confined  there  at  different 
times  was  about  thirty  thousand. 


OUTSIDE  CAMP   DOUGLA8.  107 


XIX.    OUTSIDE    CAMP    DOUGLAS. 

/CHICAGO  was  early  made  a  depot  for  the  purchase  of  Gov- 
^-^  ernment  supplies  during  the  war.  During  1863  about 
1500  horses  were  bought  there  at  a  cost  of  $1,800,000,  and  some 
$2,500,000  more  was  expended  for  horses  during  the  first  seven 
months  of  1864.  In  the  latter  year  the  purchases  of  the  quar- 
termaster's department  alone  footed  up  $2.664,038.54,  and  the 
other  expenditures  §916,528.23,  besides  which  nearly  §1,000,000 
worth  of  material  were  bought  in  the  city  by  other  depart- 
ments. The  material  transported  by  the  department  in  1864, 
weighed  over  41,525  tons,  involving  a  cost  of  $1,100  per 
month  for  drayage  alone.  The  purchases  of  the  quartermaster 
in  1865  were  about  §900,000,  and  the  expenditures  $500,000. 

During  the  first  three  years  of  the  war  Chicago  had  sent 
into  the  field  all  the  men  required  of  her,  and  many  more  than 
her  due  proportion,  the  city  having  been  an  active  recruiting 
depot  for  both  the  army  and  navy.  On  the  4th  of  July  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  issued  his  call  for  500,000  men;  the  quota  of 
Illinois  being  fixed  at  16,182,  of  which  number  Cook  County 
was  required  to  furnish  4250.  This  was  more  than  one-quarter 
of  the  call  from  the  entire'State,  and  the  assigned  quota  was  so 
manifestly  excessive  that  it  was  finally  reduced  by  fifty  per 
cent.  Then  the  county  authorities  authorized  the  issue  of 
$300,000  county  scrip,  to  give  a  bounty  of  $300  to  each  recruit 
credited  on  the  quota.  Inside  the  city  the  people  organized 
and  offered  additional  bounties,  but  in  spite  of  all  this  the 
county  was  in  arrears  to  the  extent  of  1650  men,  on  the  26th 
of  September,  and  drafting  was  commenced.  The  drawing  was 
continued  spasmodically  for  three  weeks,  during  which  time 


108  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

1550  volunteers  were  obtained,  leaving  59  conscripts  held  to 
service. 

In  November,  1864,  the  people  were  startled  by  the  rumor 
that  a  plot  had  been  formed  to  release  the  prisoners  in  Camp 
Douglas,  and  capture  and  sack  the  city,  on  the  eve  of  the  presi- 
dential election.  A  large  number  of  men  from  the  southern 
part  of  the  State  had  arrived  in  the  city  a  few  days  previously, 
with  no  ostensible  purpose.  These  were  arrested,  with  several 
residents  who  were  suspected  of  being  rebel  sympathizers.  A 
number  of  them  were  afterward  tried  by  court-martial  in  Cin- 
cinnati, but  after  the  close  of  the  war  most  of  them  were  par- 
doned and  allowed  to  return  home,  after  an  imprisonment  of 
nine  months. 

Then  came  the  last  call— for  "  300,000  more"— in  December. 
It  found  Chicago  in  trouble.  The  quota  of  the  county  was  fixed 
at  5200  men,  and  of  these  the  city  was  called  on  to  furnish  by 
far  the  greatest  portion.  It  was  well  known  that  the  quota 
was  assigned  on  the  basis  of  a  population  composed  in  large 
part  of  aliens  who  had  been  attracted  from  Canada  by  an  un- 
wonted activity  in  commerce  and  manufactures,  and  all  these 
were  called  upon  to  go  forward  and  purge  the  rolls  of  all  names 
that  had  no  business  there.  But  most  of  them  feared  to  become 
unpopular,  preferring  to  prove  alienage  if  they  were  drafted. 
Added  to  this  the  fact  that  the  flesh  brokers  were  operating 
through  the  naval  rendezvous  to  carry  off  an  average  of  not  less 
than  forty  persons  per  day,  to  be  credited  to  other  places 
which  paid  a  high  bounty.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  county 
offered  a  bounty  of  $400  to  each  recruit,  and  the  city  and  ward 
committee's  additional  sums.  The  draft  was  ordered,  but  Pe- 
tersburgh  and  Richmond  fell,  and  then  no  more  soldiers  were 
wanted.  Cook  County  sent  in  all  22,532  men  to  the  Union 


OUTSIDE   CAMP   DOUGLAS.  109 

ranks  during  the  war,  with  only  one  partial  draft.  Of  the  men 
drafted,  substitutes  were  procured  for  all  except  fifty  before  the 
time  arrived  for  departure,  and  of  those  who  left  the  city  seven 
were  relieved  at  Springfield.  The  majority  of  the  recruits 
raised  under  the  last  call  were  rendezvoused  at  Camp  Fry,  near 
the  northern  limits  of  the  city. 

The  following  was  our  estimate  of  the  total  cost  to  the  countv. 
made  in  1865,  a  few  months  after  the  war  had  closed: 

Cost  of  Provost  Marshal's  Department,  not  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  total, $77,089 

Paid  by  city  for  bounties  from  October,  1863,  .        .  $  119,742 

Paid  by  the  county  from  October,  1863,     .        .        .  2,565,172 

Paids  by  the  towns  and  wards  from  October,  1863,   .  734,453 

Paid  representatives  and  substitutes,         .        .        .  56,350 

Paid  by  county  to  families, 166,034 

Paid  by  city  to  families, 90,809 

Paid  by  Board  of  Trade  to  families,  ....  220,000 

Mercantile  Association  to  families,    ....  75,000 

Total, $4,027,560 

This  is  the  cost  inside  the  county,  and  irrespective  of  private 
charities;  the  actual  cost  of  the  war  to  the  General  Government, 
amounting  in  round  numbers  to  $3,350,000,000,  was  borne  in 
part  by  Chicago,  in  addition  to  the  above.  The  share  of  the 
payments  made  by  Cook  County  into  the  Federal  Treasury 
was,  in  1865,  in  the  proportion  of  58  to  3,350.  Fifty-eight  mil- 
lions of  dollars  may  therefore  be  assumed  as  the  share  of  Cook 
County,  to  which  add  the  four  millions  of  local  expense,  and 
we  have  a  grand  total  of  sixty-two  millions  as  the  expense  borne 
or  assumed  by  Cook  County  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

The  news  that  Richmond  had  fallen  arrived  in  the  city  on 
Monday,  April  3d,  and  the  people  were  wild  with  joy.  The 


110  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

previous  good  news  flashed  over  the  wires,  of  the  fall  of  Peters- 
burgh,  the  investment  of  the  rebel  capital,  the  successive  ad- 
vances of  the  Union  forces  on  the  doomed  city,  and  the  repeated 
captures  of  large  numbers  of  prisoners,  had  all  been  in  turn 
rejoiced  over,  as  by  men  who  see  the  morning  light  breaking 
after  a  long  night  of  storm,  and  had  partially  prepared  all  for 
the  grand  result.  But  when  that  news  came,  it  was  as  though 
they  had  not  before  heard  of  a  victory.  The  joyful  news  was 
caught  up  and  shouted  through  the  streets  until  the  very  walls 
of  the  buildings  re-echoed  the  strain,  and  in  the  very  suburbs 
of  the  city  was  soon  heard  the  glad  news  "  Richmond  has  fall- 
en." The  quick  murmur  of  fire-arm  discharges  intermingled 
with  the  shouts  of  the  people,  and  soon  bonfires  threw  their 
lurid  glares  all  over  the  city,  and  around  them  gathered  happy 
throngs,  chanting  at  the  top  of  their  voices  the  "  Battle  Cry  of 
Freedom/'  the  "  Star  Spangled  Banner,"  and  other  popular 
patriotic  songs.  It  was  a  night  of  wild  tumultuous  joy,  a  time 
when  every  heart  throbbed  almost  audibly,  and  strong  men 
vented  their  feelings  in  tears  of  gladness.  A  majority  of  the 
buildings  in  the  business  parts  of  the  city  were  illuminated,  and 
many  of  those  in  less  thickly-settled  portions.  Large  and  en- 
thusiastic mass-meetings  were  held,  at  which  the  people  shouted 
their  happiness,  and  the  speakers  were  too  much  overcome  to 
make  long  talks.  Greater  enthusiasm  could  not  have  been  ex- 
hibited ;  it  showed  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  have  been  in  the 
right  place  after  all,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  some  men 
to  get  up  a  feeling  of  sympathy  with  the  South;  it  showed 
that  the  great  heart  of  the  people  was  true  to  the  Union. 

The  subsequent  news  of  the  surrender  of  Johnston,  and  the 
whole  of  the  concentrated  portion  of  the  rebel  army,  was  not 
received  with  so  much  satisfaction,  as  there  was  a  wide-spread 


AIDING  THE  SOLDIERS.  Ill 

feeling  that  the  National  honor  had  not  been  sufficiently  vindi- 
cated in  the  terms  of  the  capitulation.  The  capture  of  Davis 
was  the  last  in  the  series  of  Southern  events  that,  was  celebrated 
in  Chicago. 

.Scarcely  had  the  first  rejoicings  subsided,  when  the  nation  was 
shrouded  in  deep  mourning  by  the  news  that  President  Lin- 
coln had  been  assassinated.  Nowhere  was  the  grief  more  in- 
tense than  in  Chicago.  The  whole  city  was  draped  in  black, 
and  the  countenances  of  men  wore  even  a  deeper  shade  of  woe. 
The  body  of  the  murdered  President  reached  the  city  on  the 
1st  day  of  May,  and  was  borne  through  the  streets  in  proces- 
sion, followed  by  tens  of  thousands  of  people.  The  corpse  lay 
in  State  in  the  Court-house  during  the  next  day,  and  through 
the  night  and  day  the  people  thronged  the  building  in  quick, 
moving  column.  The  body  was  taken  to  Springfield,  his  old 
home,  on  Tuesday  night,  and  was  there  buried.  The  cata- 
falque was  one  of  the  many  interesting  objects  burned  up  in  the 
great  conflagration. 


XX.    AIDING  THE  SOLDIERS. 

NOT   the  least  important  phase  in  the  war  record  of  Chi- 
cago, was  intense  sympathy  felt  for  the  soldiers,  and  the 
liberality  with  which  that  sympathy  found  expression  in  deeds. 
In  the  summer  of  1862,  a  number  of  patriotic  ladies  associ- 
ated themselves  together  for  the  purpose  of  caring  for  the  sol- 
diers who  were  arriving  in  the  city,  or  departing  for  the  field. 
The  building  No.    45    Randolph    Street    was    taken   for  this 
purpose,  but  the  work  grew  so  rapidly  that  it  was  soon  found 


IJ2  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

necessary  to  erect  a  building  near  the  Central  Depot  to  receive 
and  feed  the  travelers,  while  the  first-named  building  was  kept 
for  the  disabled  ones,  and  called  the  "  Soldier's  Home."  The 
year  following,  the  Home  was  removed  to  the  lake  shore,  near 
the  grave  of  Douglas,  and  a  noble  building  was  subsequently 
erected  as  a  permanent  home  for  the  disabled  veterans  of  the 
war.  That  building  was  sold  in  the  autumn  of  1871,  the  few 
soldiers  remaining  at  that  time  being  removed  to  the  National 
Home. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  took  the  field  at  an 
early  day,  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  soldier,  and  the  Board 
of  Trade,  and  other  organizations,  also  sent  special  messengers 
to  the  front  with  liberal  supplies  of  good  things  not  included 
in  the  army  rations.  Then  the  Sanitary  Commission  was  or- 
ganized, and  did  a  world  of  good  all  through  the  war  in  car- 
ing for  the  brave  boys  in  the  field.  In  1863,  a  Sanitary  Fair 
was  held  in  Bryan  Hall  (since  Hooley's  Opera  House),  under 
the  joint  auspices  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Soldier's 
Home,  at  which  some  $30,000  was  netted  for  the  soldiers.  That 
hall,  by  the  by,  was  the  scene  of  most  of  the  war  meetings 
held;  and  its  walls  often  resounded  with  patriotic  appeals  and 
soul-stirring  songs;  while  many  a  distinguished  patriot's  remains 
went  thence  to  their  last  resting-place,  the  list  being  headed  by 
the  corse  of  U.  S.  Senator  Douglas. 

The  closing  grand  public  effort  for  the  aid  of  the  soldiers 
was  made  in  Chicago  during  the  year  1865 — the  great  North- 
western Sanitary  Fair.  It  was  at  first  intended  to  hold  the 
fair  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  Soldier's  Home,  but  a  union 
of  effort  was  subsequently  agreed  upon,  by  which  the  Soldier's 
Home  and  the  Sanitary  Commission  were  joint  workers,  and  the 
Christian  Commission  was  afterward  added.  Owing  to  the 


MASONIC   TEMPLE,  DEARBORN   STREET. 


TRIBUNE  BUILDING   AFTER  THE  FIRE. 


CHICAGO   DUETNQ   THE   WAB.  113 

sudden  collapse  of  the  rebellion  the  fair  was  not  held  until  after 
the  real  close  of  the  war,  and  the  pecuniary  results  were  there- 
fore much  less  than  they  would  otherwise  have  been,  as  many 
people  saw  no  further  necessity  for  exertion.  Nevertheless  the 
fair  netted  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,,  the 
gross  receipts  being  greatly  in  excess  of  three  hundred  thousand. 

The  fair  was  opened,  on  the  30th  of  May,  by  a  grand  proces- 
sion and  a  series  of  exercises,  in  the  great  Union  Building  in 
Dearborn  Park,  the  principal  features  of  which  were  the 
delivery  of  an  inaugural  poem  by  T.  Buchanan  Read,  and  the 
delivery  of  an  eloquent,  soul-stirring  address  by  Governor 
Oglesby. 

One  of  the  most  pleasant  uses  to  which  the  Fair  Buildings 
was  put,  was  the  reception  of  our  brave  soldiers,  thousands  of 
whom  were  there  saluted,  and  all,  from  lieutenant-general  to 
high-private,  received  with  a  hearty  enthusiasm  that  told  how 
much  was  felt  the  debt  owed  to  them.  Major-General  Sher- 
man arrived  on  the  8th  of  June,  and  a  most  cordial  reception 
was  extended  to  him  by  all  classes.  On  the  10th  Lieutenant- 
General  Grant  arrived,  and  was  received  in  Union  Hall  with 
an  ovation  perfectly,  tremendous  in  extent  and  enthusiasm. 


XXI.    CHICAGO    DURING   THE    WAR. 


rilFIE  war  built  up  Chicago,  giving  a  wonderful  stimulus  to 

-*-    its  commerce  and  manufactures,  but  the  first  effect  was  dis- 

astrous in  the  extreme.     The  shock  unsettled  every  one,  the 

experience  being  so  novel  that  very  few  were  able  to  form  even 
10 


114  CHICAGO  AND  TUE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

a  faint  idea  of  its  influence  upon  the  business  of  the  city.  But 
it  is  due  to  the  merchants  to  say  that  they  were  unwilling  to 
take  offered  chances  of  gain.  Immediately  on  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities  large  sums  of  gold  were  sent  to  Chicago  from  New 
Orleans  and  other  Southern  cities,  requesting  that  produce 
should  be  sent  in  exchange.  The  men  to  whom  these  orders 
were  addressed,  one  and  all,  sent  back  the  money,  saying  that 
they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  sending  of  supplies 
to  an  enemy. 

When  the  war  broke  out  the  issues  of  Western  banks  were 
largely  based  on^  Southern  stocks — there  being  not  less  than 
twelve  million  dollars  worth  (?)  of  that  kind  of  money  in  the 
State.  Of  course  it  rapidly  depreciated,  causing  an  unnatural 
fluctuation  in  the  price  of  exchange,  and  the  market  value  of 
all  kinds  of  produce.  Within  a  month  the  case  had  become  so 
desperate  that  the  newspapers  published  daily  lists  of  the  quota- 
ble values,  in  gold,  of  the  different  bank  bills,  those  quotations 
ranging  all  the  way  from  ten  cents  on  the  dollar  to  par — very 
few  of  the  latter.  And  these  quotations  fluctuated  so  widely 
that  no  one  felt  sure  in  receiving  payment  that  the  quotation 
would  be  sustained  till  he  could  pay  it  over  to  some  one  else. 
For  once  in  the  world's  history,  nearly  every  one  preferred  pay- 
ing his  debts  to  keeping  that  "money"  on  hand.  Soon  there- 
after most  of  the  Illinois  banks  went  out  of  existence,  and 
within  a  few  weeks  all  traces  of  the  "  wild-cat "  had  disap- 
peared forever.  The  subsequent  experience  in  the  gradual  de- 
preciation of  Government  currency,  the  consequent  scarcity  of 
small  change,  the  desperate  expedients  to  which  the  people 
resorted  before  the  issues  of  fractional  currency,  and  the  gen- 
eral adoption  of  the  National  bank-note  as  a  circulating  medium, 
are  matters  of  general  history  pertaining  no  more  to  Chicago 


CHICAGO   DURING   THE   WAR.  115 

than  to  any  other  place  in  the  Northern  States,  except  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  where  the  people  used  a  metallic  currency  all 
through  the  war. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  arrest  the  displacement  of  this  cur- 
rency by  the  circulation  of  a  document,  to  which  many  of  the 
leading  business  men  subscribed,  pledging  themselves  to  take 
the  bills  of  certain  banks  at  par  till  the  close  of  the  war.  But 
they  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  stop  the  torrent  of  Niag- 
ara with  a  wooden  spoon.  The  resolve  was  adhered  to  barely 
three  days,  and  then  the  stuff  disappeared  as  if  by  magic.  It 
was  wonderful,  too,  to  see  how  little  embarrassment  was  caused 
by  the  withdrawal  of  so  much  currency  from  circulation.  /  It 
astonished  even  those  of  the  East,  but  they  soon  knew  the 
reason — learned  it  in  a  lesson  that  only  war  could  teach.  The 
material  of  the  nation's  prosperity  lay  at  the  West.  Cotton 
was  deposed  from  his  throne,  and  corn  and  pork  thenceforward 
reigned  undisturbed  as  the  grand  duumvirate  of  the  United 
States.  The  people  of  the  East  were  obliged  to  send  their 
money  westward  if  they  would  receive  those  prime  necessaries 
of  existence — rendered  doubly  necessary  by  the  enhanced  con- 
sumption attendant  upon  grim  war. 

As  the  exponent  of  Western  production,  Chicago  rapidly  rose 
to  a  much  higher  position  than  she  had  ever  before  occupied. 
Agricultural  production  was  wonderfully  stimulated  by  the 
shedding  of  blood.  Then  the  soldiers  needed  equipments. 
The  supply  of  ammunition  was  principally  drawn  from  other 
points,  but  for  food,  clothing,  saddlery,  horses  and  wagons,  and 
the  other  etceteras  of  the  march  and  the  camp,  Chicago  was 
called  upon  to  the  utmost  of  her  resources,  the  Government 
establishing  an  agency  there  at  an  early  day.  The  city  was 
really  an  important  base  of  supply ;  far  enough  away  from  the 


116  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GKEAT   CONFLAGEATION. 

scene  of  strife  to  be  safe,  and  yet  so  closely  connected  by  rail 
with  every  part  of  the  country  that  troops  and  munitions  could 
be  moved  with  facility  to  any  point  desired. 

The  enlivened  demand  at  once  stimulated  production,  and 
Chicago  became  very  busy  as  a  manufacturing  center.  Thou« 
sands  of  operatives  went  there,  many  of  them  from  Canada, 
as  well  as  from  the  East,  and  from  Europe,  and  large  amounts 
of  capital  were  also  sent  there,  especially  from  the  border  States, 
by  men  who  feared  to  risk  it  so  near  the  line  that  divided  the 
two  sections.  Then  the  continued  demand  for  produce,  with 
the  gradual  drain  upon  the  workers  to  fill  up  the  army,  stim- 
ulated the  use  and  production  of  machinery  on  a  vast  scale  on 
the  farms  of  the  West.  The  need  of  supplies,  a  gradually  de- 
preciating currency,  and  continually  growing  taxation,  caused 
a  rapid  augment  in  quoted  values  of  property,  both  real  and 
personal. 

And  thus  Chicago  became  the  paradise  at  once  of  workers 
and  speculators,  and  grew  mightily.  She  prospered  apace,  while 
the  red  hand  of  war  was  sweeping  her  (wayward)  sister  cities 
as  with  the  besom  of  destruction.  Notwithstanding  the  drain 
upon  her  for  men,  her  population  increased  from  109,263  souls 
in  1860,  to  187,446  in  1865;  her  property  assets  were  very 
nearly  doubled  in  the  same  period,  her  borders  were  widely 
extended,  while  her  commerce  augmented  in  corresponding 
ratio. 

The  city  limits  were  again  extended  in  February,  1863,  to 
include  an  area  of  nearly  24  square  miles,  being  carried  one 
mile  further  south,  and  taking  in  the  previously  excepted 
western  corners,  known  as  Bridgeport  and  Holstien.  The 
city  now  contained  sixteen  wards.  The  property  valuation 
was  as  follows: 


CHICAGO   DURING  THE  WAR.  117 

Tear.  Keal.  Personal.  Total.  City  Taxes. 

I860,  $31,198,135  $5,855,377  $37,053,512  $373,315 
1862,  31,587,545  5,552,300  37,139,845  564,038 
18fi5,  44,064,499  20,644,678  64,709,177  1,294,184 

These  figures  are  instructive.  They  show  that  during  the 
first  years  of  the  war  there  was  uo  material  increase  in  values. 
After  that,  however,  the  value  of  personal  property  rose  rapid- 
ly, and  mercantile  stocks  were  greatly  enlarged.  Real  estate 
continued  in  a  depressed  condition  till  hear  the  close  of  1862. 
Then  confidence  was  restored,  and  for  the  first  time  in  five 
years,  real  estate  was  in  demand,  and  became  steadily  active 
about  the  spring  of  1863.  The  demand  was  healthy  and  legiti- 
mate, confined  almost  entirely  to  those  buying  for  actual  use  or 
occupation,  whether  for  business  purposes  or  for  residences. 
Some  few  made  large  purchases  for  investment  and  for  sub-di- 
vision, but  these  were  exceptions.  Prices  advanced  moderately 
and  steadily  during  this  period,  the  principal  advance  being  in 
those  portions  of  the  city  rendered  easily  accessible  by  the  new- 
ly extended  horse  railroads.  Throughout  the  whole  of  the  year 
1864,  the  demand  continued  steady  for  active  use  and  occupa- 
tion. The  largest  class  of  purchasers  was  among  the  merchants, 
whose  profits  in  business  were  sufficiently  large  to  enable  them 
to  make  investments  of  their  surplus  capital  in  residence  prop- 
erty suitable  to  their  requirements  and  tastes.  Many  of  the 
lumber  dealers,  packers,  and  manufacturers  also  found  their 
condition  so  much  improved,  that  they  were  able  to  purchase 
premises  before  occupied  by  them  under  rent.  The  desire  to  in- 
vest was  also  stimulated  to  some  extent  by  the  growing  volume 
of  the  currency,  and  the  large  cash  balances  accumulated  during 
a  period  of  great  business  prosperity  consequent  thereon,  with 
a  slight  feeling  of  insecurity  among  a  portion  of  the  community 


118  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

in  regard  to  the  ultimate  value  of  legal-tender  notes.  During 
the  year  1864,  desirable  inside  business  property  advanced  in 
value  about  20  per  cent,  on  the  average,  and  good  residence 
property  on  the  street  railroad  routes  about  10  or  15  per  cent. 

The  following  figures  show  the  movement  of  some  of  the 
leading  articles  of  produce  during  the  war : 

1861.  1864.  1865. 

Flour  man'f't,  bbls.  .  t.  291,852  290,137  301,776 

Grain  received,  bu.  .  .  54,038,906  45,952,736  53,613,823 

Grain  shipped,     "  .  .  50,481,862  47,124,494  53,212,224 

Hogs  received,  No.  .  .  "  675,902  1,410,320  1,178,832 

Hogs  packed,      "  *  .  .  505,691  760,514  507,355 

Cattle  packed,  No.  .  .  53,754  92,459  27,172 

Lumber  received,  M.  .  .  249,309  501,592  647,146 

Wool  received,  Ibs.  .  .  1,184,208  4,304,388  7,639,749 

We  have  not  at  hand  a  statement  of  the  manufactures  of 
1864  and  '65,  our  carefully  prepared  records  having  been 
burned  up.  We  shall  compare  1860  with  1870,  in  a  subsequent 
chapter. 

City  improvements  were  numerous  during  the  war,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  rapid  growth  of  population.  In  1864,  not 
less  than  6000  buildings  of  all  kinds  were  erected,  at  a  cost  of 
$4,700,000.  These  included  9  churches,  2  schools,  and  4  halls 
and  public  buildings;  of  the  latter,  four  were  worth  $100,000 
and  upwards.  Nearly  as  many  buildings  had  been  erected  in 
1863,  and  this  large  number  of  additional  structures  almost 

*  The  winter  of  1862-3,  was  the  most  active  in  pork  packing  ever 
known  in  the  city:  970,264  hogs  were  packed,  a  number  far  exceeding 
that  returned  by  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago  has  kept  the  lead  of  that  city  in 
hog  packing  ever  since.  The  number  cut  in  the  winter  of  1863-4  was 
.904,659. 


CHICAGO   DURING   THE   WAR.  119 

doubled  the  occupied  area  of  the  city.  In  1860  there  were  build- 
iugs  on  Clark  and  State  Streets,  north  and  south,  and  on  Mad- 
ison, Randolph,  and  Lake,  westward  to  a  distance  of  two  miles 
and  a  half,  from  the  Court-house,  and  a  few  streets  parallel  to 
those  were  moderately  occupied.  But  outside  of  the  main  thor- 
oughfares, there  were  few  buildings  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half 
out  from  the  business  center  in  either  direction,  except  toward 
Bridgeport  and  Holstein.  In  1865  the  inhabited  area  had  ex- 
tended to  a  distance  of  fully  three  miles  from  the  Court-house 
in  every  direction  except  to  the  eastward  (on  the  lake),  while 
along  the  principal  streets  houses  were  scattered,  at  intervals, 
very  much  farther.  The  settled  portions  of  the  city  covered 
about  eighteen  square  miles. 

While  the  number  of  buildings  increased,  there  was  a  notice- 
able improvement  in  their  character.  More  than  ever  stone 
and  brick  were  employed,  and  in  this  period  we  find  that  the 
use  of  stone  from  other  parts  of  the  United  States  was  exten- 
sively resorted  to,  both  for  the  sake  of  variety,  and  because  of 
its  greater  durability.  Previous  to  the  war,  only  one  building 
— the  Court-house — had  been  constructed  of  stone  from  outside 
the  originial  limits  of  the  cotinty  of  Cook,  and  only  one  other — 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church — from  any  other  quarry  than 
those  at  Joliet  or  Lemont.  In  1862  the  South  Branch  Dock 
Company  began  to  excavate  the  row  of  slips  between  Halstead 
and  Reuben  Streets,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  south  branch  ;  the 
clay  was  found  to  be  of  excellent  quality,  and  as  it  could  be  had 
for  the  trouble  of  digging,  the  brickmakcrs  were  enabled  to  offer 
their  wares  at  prices  which  more  nearly  competed  with  those  of 
lumber.  The  commerce  and  trade  of  the  city  increased  mightily 
during  the  war,  and  the  appreciation  in  the  value  of  goods  on 
hand  made  many  rich,  and  enabled  them  to  enjoy  the  luxury 


120  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

• 

of  costly  buildings.  Then  stone  fronts  became  the  rage,  and 
iron  was  invested  in  to  some  extent  also.  Principally  from 
that  time  have  sprung  up  the  palatial  residences,  the  imposing 
warehouses,  the  princely  stores,  the  costly  churches,  which  have 
made  Chicago  equal  to  any  city  in  the  world,  in  this  respect. 
Prominent  among  these  we  may  note  the  Opera  House  and  the 
rebuilt  Sherman  during  the  war,  while  those  erected  since  its 
close  are  too  numerous  to  mention.  The  progress  in  the  build- 
ing of  smaller  residences  is  also  remarkable.  There  is  a  marked 
reform  in  their  character,  a  notable  improvement  in  arrange- 
ment, while  in  number  they  have  grown  so  fast  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult even  to  count  them.  Especially  is  the  growth  observable 
near  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  where  several  square  miles  are 
now  dotted  thick  with  pleasant  cottages  which  four  years  ago 
were  in  the  clay-bed,  or  in  the  forests  of  Michigan. 

With  this  extension  came  other  city  improvements.  The 
streets  were  raised  to  grade,  and  the  old  wooden  sidewalks  were 
replaced  by  stone  on  the  principal  business  streets,  and  the 
avenues.  The  wooden-block  pavement  was  also  extensively 
introduced ;  it  was  laid  on  Lake  Street  in  1861 ;  South  Water 
and  Wells  in  1862;  the  intersections  of  Clark  with  Randolph 
and  Madison  in  1863,  and  West  Lake  Street  in  1864.  In  1862 
the  People's  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Company  commenced  (June 
1st)  to  supply  the  people  of  the  West  Division  with  gas,  through 
15  miles  of  pipe,  which  has  since  been  added  to,  almost  indefi- 
nitely. The  Chicago  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Company  was 
henceforth  restricted  to  the  supply  of  the  North  and  South 
Divisions.  About  75  miles  of  sewers  had  been  built  up  to  the 
close  of  the  war. 

In  1863  the  city  ordered  the  dredging  out  of  a  passage 
through  the  bar,  which  had  grown  by  continued  accretions  till 


CHICAGO   DURING  THE  WAR.  121 

it  necessitated  a  round-about  journey  of  a  mile  each  -way  to  all 
vessels  entering  or  leaving  the  harbor.  By  August,  1864,  a 
passage  had  been  opened  to  admit  vessels  drawing  12J  feet  of 
water,  150,000  cubic  yards  of  sand  having  been  removed.  The 
insufficiency  of  the  existing  dock  room,  though  presenting 
nearly  ten  miles  of  wharves,  induced  the  digging  out  of  an  ex- 
tensive series  of  slips  on  the  south  branch,  and  the  determina- 
tion to  construct  a  line  of  docks  outside  the  harbor  on  the  north 
shore.  The  latter  project  was,  however,  abandoned  till  after 
the  close  of  the  war,  the  first  few  cribs  and  piles  put  down  hav- 
ing been  washed  out  in  a  violent  gale. 

The  greatest  internal  improvement  of  this  period  was  the 
Great  Lake  Tunnel,  undertaken  about  the  middle  of  the  war, 
though  the  greater  portion  of  the  work  was  done  after  the 
return  of  peace.  The  tunnel  stretches  out  under  Lake  Michi- 
gan to  a  distance  of  two  miles,  and  is  really  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  A  large  extension  of  the  water-pipe 
system  was  in  progress  from  1862  to  1864,  inclusive. 

As  "it  never  rains  but  it  pours,"  so  Chicago,  having  once 
determined  on  securing  an  adequate  supply  of  water  by  means 
of  the  lake  tunnel,  found  herself  in  danger  of  having  too  much 
of  it.  The  quarries  on  the  then  western  limits  of  the  city,  from 
which  were  taken  the  stones  to  pave  the  streets,  and  to  build 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  were  permeated  with  a  bi- 
tuminous material,  and  some  spirit  or  other  was  declared  to 
have  announced  through  a  medium  that  oil  could  be  had  there 
for  the  boring.  A  company  bored  down  about  seven  hundred 
feet  only  to  strike  a  magnificent  artesian  well,  from  which  the 
water  has  ever  since  flowed  at  the  rate  of  half  a  million  gallons 
daily,  supposed  to  descend  along  a  sandstone  stratum  from  the 
bed  of  Rock  River,  which  is  163  feet  above  the  level  of  Lake 
11 


122  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Michigan.  Several  other  artesian  wells  have  since  then  been 
put  down,  with  uniform  success.  One  eleven  hundred  feet  deep 
{supplies  the  Union  Stock  Yards,  on  Halstead  Street,  near  the 
southern  limits  of  the  city,  and  one  has  been  sunk  in  or  near 
each  of  the  parks  in  the  West  Division. 

The  police  force  was  organized  under  the  metropolitan  sys- 
tem in  1861,  at  which  time  it  consisted  of  fifty-two  men.  It 
consisted  of  about  seventy  patrolmen,  besides  sergeants  and 
detectives,  at  the  close  of  the  war.  The  first  steam  fire-engino 
was  introduced  about  1859,  but  the  old  volunteer  force  con- 
tinued to  act  with  their  hand-engines  till  1861,  when  the  paid 
system  was  adopted  exclusively,  and  the  old  hand-engines  went 
out  of  existence,  with  the  brawls  and  feuds  attending  them. 

The  Fire  Alarm  and  Police  Telegraph,  the  construction  of 
which  was  commenced  in  1864,  was  completed  in  the  early  part 
of  the  year,  and  formally  turned  over  to  the  city  in  the  begin- 
ning of  June,  1865.  It  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  miles  of  wire,  of  which  forty-six  were  in  the  South  Division, 
fifty  in  the  West,  and  thirty  in  the  North,  which  connected  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  fire  boxes  and  stations.  The  cost  was 
$70,000.  Since  then  continued  additions  have  been  rendered 
necessary  by  the  rapid  growth  of  the  city. 

We  may  not  pass  this  period  without  noting  the  great  im- 
petus given  to  amusements  by  the  rapid  filling  up  of  the  city, 
and  the  greater  abundance  of  money  incident  to  great  activity  in 
every  department  of  trade  and  commerce.  The  Museum  was 
opened  early  in  1863,  McVicker's  Theater  was  entirely  rebuilt 
in  1864,  and  the  same  year  the  Opera  House  was  built,  and 
opened  only  a  few  days  after  the  evacuation  of  Richmond. 


PEACE  AND   PROSPERITY.  123 


XXII.    PEACE   AND  PROSPERITY. 

ri\HE  close  of  the  rebellion  staggered  the  city  almost  as 
-•-  much  as  its  commencement.  The  return  of  the  soldiers 
to  their  homes  caused  a  large  increase  in  the  population,  and 
necessitated  much  activity  in  making  room  for  such  numbers, 
tlmugh  many  of  them  returned  to  the  bosom  of  their  families. 
But  with  the  return  of  peace  came  a  tumble  in  the  premium  on 
gold  that,  added  to  the  withdrawal  of  an  army  demand,  pro- 
duced a  depreciation  in  prices  that  was  almost  fearful  to  con- 
template, on  the  part  of  those  who  had  large  stocks  of  produce 
or  merchandise  on  hand,  however  agreeable  it  may  have  been 
to  the  buyer.  The  embarrassment  was  really  greatest  just 
before  the  war  ended,  as  the  master  finger  of  capital  had  de- 
tected the  weakening  in  the  pulse  of  the  rebellion  that  fore- 
shadowed its  dissolution  long  before  the  fact  was  apparent  to 
the  general  public.  By  the  middle  of  April,  1865,  the  gold 
premium  had  dropped  from  §1.92  to  47  per  cent,  (from  $2.92 
to  $1.47  per  gold  dollar),  and  the  quotations  on  all  classes  of 
merchandise  fell  correspondingly.  Farm  produce  dropped  like 
a  hot  potatoe  from  the  hands  of  a  boy.  Wheat  declined  from 
$2.00  per  bushel  in  September,  1864,  to  $1.00  in  May,  1865. 
In  the  same  time  corn  fell  from  $1.33  to  38  cents;  oats  from 
67  to  34  cents  per  bushel;  live  hogs  from  12  cents  to  7  cents 
per  pound ;  mess  pork  form  $42.50  to  '$23.00  per  barrel,  and 
mixed  lumber  from  $20.00  to  $11.00  per  thousand  feet.  These 
tremendous  depreciations  in  price,  on  the  very  large  stocks  of 
produce  in  Chicago  and  the  West,  were  felt  severely,  yet  no 
important  failures  occurred.  The  loss  in  mercantile  business 
was  relatively  less,  as  the  majority  of  the  wholesale  merchants 


124  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

had  taken  note  in  time,  and  were  carrying  very  light  stocks  when 
the  collapse  came.  The  leading  politicians,  who  in  the  autumn 
of  1864  were  nearly  ready  to  give  up  the  ship  in  despair,  were 
not  half  so  wise  as  the  mercantile  community — the  latter  felt 
the  coming  of  the  day  long  before  the  "darkest  hour  before  the 
dawn  "  had  lifted  its  somber  veil  from  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

And  so  the  prudence  that  has  ever  marked  the  operations  of 
the  business  men  of  Chicago,  even  when  they  have  seemed  to  be 
most  reckless,  carried  them  safely  through  this  third  great 
crisis.  The  majority  of  them  had  made  such  liberal  profits  during 
the  preceding  three  years,  that  they  could  bear  considerable  loss, 
and  had  wisely  invested  much  of  their  surplus  in  Chicago  real 
estate,  which  did  not  depreciate  with  merchandise  and  produce. 
Indeed,  confidence  in  the  future  of  Chicago  was  strongest  among 
those  who  were  the  heaviest  losers  by  the  close  of  the  war. 

At  the  risk  of  being  thought  facetious  on  a  grave  subject,  we 
digress  here  to  say  that  it  seemed  as  if  nearly  all  of  the  returned 
privates  entered  commercial  colleges  to  fit  themselves  for  clerk- 
ships, while  the  officers  entered  upon  the  insurance  business — 
the  generals  and  colonels  as  managing  agents,  and  the  captains 
and  lieutenants  as  canvassers.  The  palmy  days  of  the  business 
college  were  soon  over,  when  the  soldiers  found  that  the  diplo- 
ma earned  by  five  weeks  of  study  and  a  few  more  dollars  was 
not  a  passport  to  the  counting-room.  But  the  insurance  busi- 
ness had  more  endurance.  It  dated  its  real  life  from  1865,  and 
both  the  life  and  fire  departments  had  attained  to  stupendous 
proportions  when  the  latter  was  brought  to  rudely  by  the  Great 
Conflagration. 

The  six  years  succeeding  the  war  formed  a  period  of  growth 
unprecedented,  even  in  the  previous  history  of  the  city.  After 
about  the  first  year  the  expansion  was  almost  magical.  That 


COMMERCE   OF    1870.  125 

first  twelve  months  was  active,  but  unprofitable.  Not  only  did 
the  values  of  merchandise  decline  heavily,  but  the  wheat  crop 
of  the  previous  year  had  been  a  partial  failure,  and  the  impor- 
tant business  of  packing  provisions  fell  off  terribly.  But  after 
1865  had  been  passed  the  city  took  a  new  lease  of  prosperity, 
which,  though  not  limited  at  the  time,  proved  to  be  of  five 
years  duration. 

The  population  increased  from  178,900  in  1865  to  252,054 
in  1868,  and  to  334,270  in  1871,  the  last  total  being  that  ob- 
tained by  the  census  enumeration  made  by  Richard  Edwards. 
"NVe  append  for  reference  the  following  figures,  which  show  the 
ratio  of  the  growth  of  Chicago  in  ten  years  to  the  county  and 
State: 

Population.  1860.  1870.  Per  ct.  increase. 

Chicago,        ....    110,973  299,227  170 

Cook  County,        .        .        .    144,954  349,786  141 

Dlinois,         .        .        .        .1,711,951          2,537,910  43 

A  portion  of  the  city  growth,  however,  is  due  to  an  extension 
of  territory  within  the  limits  of  Cook  County. 


XXIII.    COMMERCE    OF    1870. 

settlement  of  the  other  Western  States  and  Territories 
-•-  proceeded  even  more  rapidly  than  the  State  of  Illinois, 
during  this  decade,  and  herein  lay  the  true  secret  of  the  contin- 
ued growth  of  Chicago.  Rival  cities  were  making  efforts  to 
catch  a  portion  of  her  trade,  and  other  routes  to  the  seaboard 
thai,  those  leading  through  Chicago  were  constructed,  but  that 
city  was  still  recognized  as  the  natural  focus  of  the  commercial 


126 


CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 


Valued 


relations  between  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  world 
to  the  eastward.  The  more  grain  was  raised  in  the  West,  the 
more  passed  through  Chicago,  and  the  more  money  was  spent 
in  that  city  in  the  purchase  of  articles  of  luxury  or  the  necessa- 
ries of  civilized  life  by  the  producers  of  the  West.  These  facts 
attracted  capital  and  industry  to  the  Garden  City,  and  caused  a 
rapid  appreciation  in  the  value  of  the  real  estate,  as  the  people 
of  other  parts  of  the  world  pressed  forward  to  "join  in  the 
innumerable  caravan"  of  pilgrims  toward  the  modern  Mecca. 
The  following  table  of  aggregates  of  produce  and  material 
received  in  the  city  daring  the  ye"ar  1870,  will  show  the  magni- 
tude of  the  trade.  The  last  column  gives  the  value  of  the 
receipts : 

Receipts. 

Flour,  bbls.        i ;v.  "ilii     .       CT'.:  1,766,037 

Wheat,  bu.      >>'!«--i     .        .  17,394,609 

Corn,  bu 20,189,775 

Oats,  bu.    .        ;       .                .  10,472,078 

Rye,  bu 1,093,493 

Barley,  bu.         ....  3,335,653 

Grass  Seed,  Ibs.          .        .        .  18,681,148 

Broom  Corn,  Ibs.        .        ._*._*.„...  13,688,918 

Cut  Meats,  Ibs.           .       ,        .  52,162,881 

Beef,  bbls 20,554 

Pork,  bbls 40,883 

Lard,  Ibs.        "f.?,       .        .        .  7,711,018 

Tallow,  Ibs.        ..        .        .        .  2,460,157 

Butter,  Ibs.        ' .' "  *  .        .        .  11,682,348 

D.  Hogs,  No.      .    '  "';' ''  ^  ^  260,214 

Live  Hogs,  No.      «V!JI'-s        .  1,693,158 

Cattle,  No.          .     -w:-- •:."- !i,-  532,964 

Hides,  Ibs.          .        .,,....        .  28,539,668 

H.  Wines,  bbls.          .        .      , ...  165,689 

Wool,  Ibs.          .  '    v'.v  '.       .  14,751,089 


Shipments. 

llcceipts. 

1,705,977 

$7,947,166 

16,432,585 

17,394,409 

17,777,377 

13,123,250 

8,507,735 

4,188,740 

913,629 

798,250 

2,584,692 

2,668,520 

6,287,615 

840,650 

8,405,346 

1,230,200 

112,433,168 

6,522,000 

65,369 

266,800 

165,885 

981,200 

43,292,249 

1,079,543 

2,253,030 

226,000 

6,493,143 

2,920,600 

171,188 

5,984,900 

924,453 

42,280,200 

391,709 

91,282,000 

27,245,846 

3,426,750 

176,508 

6,627,560 

15,826,536 

4,300,400 

COMMERCE  OF   1870. 


127 


•      Receipts. 

Shipments. 

Values 
Receipts. 

Potatoes,  bo.      ... 

665,578 

42,091 

$500,000 

Lumber,  M.        .        .        . 

1,018,999 

583,491 

15,285,000 

Shingles,  M.        .         .        . 

652,091 

666,248 

2,445,340 

Lath,  M.             .        .        : 

103,822 

56,077 

259,500 

Salt,  bbls. 

674,618 

571,013 

1,349,300 

Flax  Seed,  Ibs. 

8,694,000 

275,000 

271,700 

349,855 

116,711 

1,050,000 

Cotton,  Ibs.         .        .        . 

411,000 

431,000. 

84,200 

Tobacco,  Ibs.      ... 

10,093,516 

2,080,304 

6,056,100 

Lead,  Ibs.           ... 

14,445,623 

7,855,471 

1,400,000 

Horses,  No.        ... 

3,537 

3,488 

283,000 

Coal,  tons,           .        .        . 

.       *    887,'474  * 

»      110,467 

7,974,900 

Wood,  cords,      .        .        . 

144,578 

1,230,000 

Lake  Fish,  brls. 

.   *          78,253 

469,500 

Total, 


To  these  we  may  add  the  following : 


Value. 

Pig  Iron,      .        .        .  $900,000 

Iron  Ore,      .        .        .  14,000,000 

Nails,   ....  247,500 

Carbon  Oil,  .        .        .  650,000 

Building  Stone,  etc.,    .  250,000 

Cedar  Posts,         .        .  265,000 

Telegraph  Poles,   .        .  647,000 

Boots  and  Shoes,  .        .  7,500,000 

Dry  Goods,   .        .        .  35,000,000 

Drugs,  Chemicals,  etc.,  4,000,000 

Hardware,    .        .        .  5,000,000 

Metals,  etc.           .        .  3,200,000 


Crockery,  etc. 

Jewelry,  etc. 

Groceries, 

Musical  Instruments, 

Cheese, 

Miscellaneous, 

Grand  Total,     . 

"  in  1869,  . 
"  in  1868,  . 
"  in  1860,  . 
"  in  1852,  . 


$182,743,578 


Value. 

$2,800,000 

5,250,000 

,     53,000,000 

2,000,000 

.       2,100,000 

79,681,922 

$399,835,000 

412,550,000 

397,552,000 

97,067,617 

20,000,000 


These  figures  show  a  decrease  of  $13,000,000,  or  about  three 
per  cent,  for  1870  as  against  1869.  But  the  difference  is  not 
real.  Taking  into  the  account  the  difference  in  the  gold  values 
of  our  currency  in  these  two  years,  we  have  an  actual  increase 


128  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

in  gold  values  to  the  amount  of  fully  nine  per  cent,  in  the 
receipts  of  1870,  as  compared  with  those  of  1869. 

Corresponding  to  this  was  an  immense  impetus  to  the  whole- 
sale trade  of  the  city,  as  exhibited  in  the  above  items  of  lumber, 
groceries,  dry  goods,  hardware,  drugs,  etc.,  as  compared  with 
those  of  previous  years.  The  wholesale  sales  of  1870  footed  up 
grand  total  of  $402,500,000  against  $400,000,000  in  1869,  or 
five-eighths, per  cent.,  though  prices  averaged  twelve  to  fifteen 
per  cent,  lower  in  the  latter  year,  giving  an  annual  increase  of 
fully  fifteen  per  cent,  in  the  quantity  of  goods  sold.  The  reduc- 
tion was  principally  in  dry  goods,  the  currency  received  for 
which,  was  some  $7,000,000  less  in  1870  than  in  1869. 

The  business  of  1871  bade  fair  to  foot  up  a  much  larger 
total  than  that  of  1870,  when  it  was  so  ruthlessly  suspended  by 
the  fire.  The  receipts  and  shipments  of  grain  and  other  produce 
up  to  the  7th  of  October,  were  far  in  excess  of  those  for  the 
same  time  in  any  previous  year,  while  the  mercantile  list  showed 
a  much  more  satisfactory  business.  For  nearly  two  years  previous 
to  1871,  except  during  a  short  time  near  the  commencement 
of  the  war  between  France  and  Prussia,  the  selling  values  of 
nearly  all  kinds  of  movable  property  had  steadily  declined,  and 
no  one  cared  to  carry  very  large  stocks,  either  in  city  or  coun- 
try. With  the  1st  of  January,  1871,  came  a  long  expected  reduc- 
tion in  the  duties  on  many  foreign  goods,  and  every  one  felt  that 
the  bottom  had  been  reached  in  prices.  Hence  those  who  bought 
in  Chicago  were  willing  to  purchase  much  larger  bills  of  gcods 
than  previously,  and  the  merchants  were  able  to  extend  their 
trade  farther  away  by  the  opening  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  in 
May,  1870,  and  the  adoption  of  the  bonded-car  system  in  1871. 
By  the  first,  the  commerce  of  a  large  tract  of  western  country  Avas 
opened  up,  and  a  direct  communication  established  with  China 


COMMERCE   OF   1870.  129 

and  Japan,  by  which  the  teas  of  those  countries  were  laid  down 
on  the  lake-shore  so  expeditiously  and  cheaply  as  at  once  to 
stimulate  consumption  of  an  article  not  spoiled  by  a  long  sea 
journey  through  the  tropics.  By  the  second,  Chicago  merchants 
were  able  to  import  direct  from  Europe,  saving  the  heavy 
charges  and  vexatious  delays  to  which  they  had  previously 
been  subjected  in  New  York.  And  besides  all  this,  an  inde- 
pendent avenue  of  trade  with  Europe  was  opened  up  in  the 
summer,  giving  a  much  more  expeditious  and  cheaper  route  for 
goods,  by  a  line  of  steamers  via  Montreal. 

We  estimated  the  sales  of  foreign  goods  in  Chicago  in  1869 
at  $79,000,000,  and  at  $84,000,000  in  1870.  We  have  reason 
to  believe  that  the  total  would  have  exceeded  $120,000,000  in 
1871,  had  the  course  of  commerce  been  unimpeded  by  the 
great  calamity  of  October,  as  a  great  many  of  the  leading  mer- 
chants had  made  arrangements  to  buy  regularly  in  European 
markets.  How  much  this  result  will  be  changed  by  the  events 
of  the  fire,  can  not  be  estimated  at  the  date  of  this  writing. 

The  wholesale  sales  of  Chicago  would  probably  have  footed 
up  nearly  $450,000,000  in  1871,  had  business  proceeded  through 
the  remainder  of  the  year  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  that 
of  the  first  nine  months.  That  total  may  be  reached  even  yet. 

The  trade  of  Chicago  had  spread  all  over  the  Western  States 
and  Territories.  She  dealt  largely  with  California,  and  sup- 
plied largely  the  wants  of  the  people  in  the  vast  area  between, 
from  Omaha  to  Salt  Lake.  Far  out  into  the  South-west  Chi- 
cago goods  found  a  ready  market,  much  of  her  merchandise 
going  direct  through  St.  Louis.  Down  South,  and  up  North, 
her  merchants  had  accounts  spreading  all  over  the  country,  and 
even  to  the  eastward,  great  quantities  of  goods  were  sent  an- 
nually into  Indiana  and  Michigan. 


130  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

We  scarcely  need  pause  here  to  pay  a  compliment  to  the  en- 
ergy and  enterprise  that  wrought  out  such  magnificent  results 
within  a  few  years.  That  enterprise  is  known  to  all  the  world, 
and  even  the  rivals  of  Chicago  have  conceded  it ;  to  their  honor 
l>e  it  said,  they  were  the  first  to  proffer  liberal  aid  on  receiving 
the  news  that  Chicago  was  suffering. 

To  meet  the  wants  of  this  vast  business,  the  banking  facilities 
of  the  city  included  nineteen  National  banks,  of  which  three 
were  added  during  1871,  and  two  during  1870.  The  sixteen 
banks  made  return  on  the  28th  of  December,  1870,  of  $6,550,- 
000  capital  stock;  $3,041,359  surplus  and  other  undivided 
profits;  $16,774,514  deposits;  and  $4,906,424  of  circulation 
outstanding.  Adding  the  eight  or  nine  private  banks  in  the 
city,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  $3,000,000,  we  have  in 
September,  1871,  a  total  bank  capital  and  surplus  of  about 
$13,500,000.  The  clearing-house  returns  show  the  following 
as  the  business  of  1870 : 

Clearings.  Balances. 

Total,  1870,        .  ...       $810,676,036  $80,910,416 

Total,  1869,        ....       v>.     731,444,111  73,831,000 


Increase,  $79,231,925  $7,079,416 

To  accommodate  the  large  grain  business  of  the  city  there 
were  17  public  warehouses  (elevators),  with  a  united  storage 
capacity  of  11,580,000  bushels.  Besides  these  there  were  quite 
a  number  of  small  storehouses,  with  an  average  capacity  of 
about  50,0)0  bushels.  These  were  independent  of  the  store- 
houses for  the  keeping  of  flour,  pork  products,  and  other  arti- 
cles of  produce. 

The  number  of  vessel  arrivals  in  the  port  of  Chicago  during 
1870  was  12,739,  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of  3,049,265  tons. 


COMMERCE   OF   1870.  131 

* 

The  number  in  1862  was  7417,  with  1,931,692  tonnage.  The 
number  of  vessels  owned  in  Chicago  in  1870  was  644,  with 
94,217  tonnage,  being  nearly  one-seventh  of  all  the  tonnage 
owned  on  the  northern  lakes. 

The  number  of  arrivals  in  1870,  from  April  1st  to  December 
1st  was  12,596,  and  the  clearances  12,358,  being  an  average 
of  over  50  per  day,  including  Sundays.  This  is  greater  than 
the  aggregate  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  New  Or- 
leans, and  Mobile,  during  the  same  time,  though  the  tonnage 
of  sea-going  vessels  is  much  larger  than  that  of  our  lake  ma- 
rine. 

The  development  of  railroad  enterprise  was  equally  well 
marked  during  the  period  that  elapsed  since  the  war.  Only 
one  new  line,  the  Great  Eastern — now  the  Pittsburgh,  St.  Louis, 
<fe  Cincinnati — has  been  added  to  the  list  of  those  entering  the 
city,  but  the  traffic  of  all  has  steadily  increased,  while  nearly 
all  have  been  extended  much  farther;  and  in  September,  1871, 
nearly  half  a  dozen  new  railroad  lines  were  knocking  for  ad- 
mission into  the  busy  hive  that  had  swarmed  around  the  south- 
ern end  of  Lake  Michigan.  The  statistics  of  the  produce  move- 
ment given  in  the  preceding  pages,  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
growth  of  railroad  traffic,  because  the  business  of  Chicago  is 
principally  carried  on  by  rail.  But  those  figures  scarcely  indi- 
cate the  full  extent  of  the  railroad  augmentation,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  each  succeeding  year  brings  a  more  strongly  marked 
discrimination  in  favor  of  the  railroad,  as  against  transporta- 
tion by  canal  or  lake.  The  railroad  has  taken  to  itself  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  increase  of  commerce  during  the  past 
five  years. 

Chicago  is  now  intimately  connected  by  rail  with  every  part 
of  the  continent.  Not  less  than  four  rival  lines  contend  for  the 


132  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Eastern  traffic,  while  to  the  North,  West,  and  South  long  lines 
run  in  every  direction  into  the  interior,  stretching  far  away  to 
the  water  that  fixes  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  Over  all 
these  roads  a  total  of  not  less  than  96  passenger,  and  117  freight 
trains  moved  each  way  in  the  spring  of  1871,  making  a  total 
of  426  both  ways,  or  an  average  of  three  in  every  ten  minutes 
through  the  whole  twenty-four  hours  of  each  day.  The  extent 
to  which  the  building  of  new  lines  is  progressing  is  shown  in 
the  following  table  of  the  work  done  in  the  North-western  States 
in  1870,  almost  every  mile  of  which  is  tributary  to  Chicago; 
the  grading  noted  in  the  last  column  is  in  addition  to  that  re- 
quired on  the  lines  already  covered  with  the  iron  rails : 


State. 

Miles  laid. 

Miles  graded. 

Illinois,       .         .        .      '  .   ' 

fj-i       *••;•'       1,371} 

366 

Iowa,       ">'•« 

.      *,  a      687} 

190 

Michigan,    .... 

...           623 

110 

497* 

357J 

192 

108 

402 

211 

365 

77} 

Kansas,       .... 

'•••£-    f'J    .<;**       365 

"    *  A 

135 

Colorado,     .    •"••;      -  *  :    '.  '•'' 

*->.V>v.      .           297 



Total, 4,800|         l,534f 

The  total  length  of  all  the  railroads  in  the  world  is  only  about 
120,000  miles,  and  the  total  cost  not  far  from  ten  billions  of 
dollars. 


MANUFACTURES   IN   1870.  133 


XXIV.    MANUFACTURES   IN   1870. 

i 

/CHICAGO  had  progressed  even  more  rapidly  in  manufac- 
\*  tures  than  in  commerce,  a  greater  proportion  of  her  popula- 
tion being  engaged  in  adding  to  the  value  of  material  by  labor 
than  by  the  mere  process  of  transfer.  The  books  of  the  Census 
Commissioner  at  Washington  showed,  for  1870 : 

Number  of  establishments, 1,149 

Hands  employed, 20,156 

Wages  paid,  $10,283,286 

Capital  employed,     ...  ...     27,948,501 

Value  of  material, 35,973,531 

Value  of  product, 62,736,228 

These  returns  were  doubtless  accurate  enough  in  many  de- 
partments, but  in  others  they  fall  far  short.  The  following 
statistics  of  packing  in  Chicago  in  1870  will  show  the  difference 
between  the  statements  in  the  census  return  and  the  truth : 

Returned.  Aetna!. 

Number  of  packing  establishments,  11  21 

Hands  employed,        ...  578  2,500 

Wages  paid $204,711  $430,000 

Capital,                ....  1,501,000  6,000,000 

Material,             ....  5,550,154  9,000,000 

Product,               ....  6,475,802  13,000,000 

The  pork-packing  of  the  city  for  the  winter  of  1870-71, 
footed  up  a  total  of  918,000  head. 

The  writer  of  this  prepared  the  following  compilation  for 
the  Chicago  Tribune  Annual  Review,  at  the  close  of  1870, 
following  the  census  returns  except  where  they  were  mani- 


134 


CHICAGO  AND   THE   GEEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 


festly  erroneous,  and  then  made  careful  canvass  for  the  result 
given : 


Agricultural  Implements,  $2,003,000 

Baking  Powder,     .        .  151,500 

Boots  and  Shoes,    .        .  1,500,000 

Brooms,  etc.,           .        .  457,856 

Bridges,           .        .         .  1,000,000 
Breweries  (262,035  bbls.),  2,620,350 

Bricks,        "...  750,000 

Boilers,           .         .         .  259,500 

Books,  Printing,  etc.,      .  3,000,000 

Buildings,       .        .        .  12,000,000 

Bakeries,        .        .         .  1,300,000 

Cabinet-makers,  etc.,      .  1,277,388 

Carriages  and  Wagons,  .  1,368,982 

Carpets,          .        .       .»  1,300 

Car-wheels,  and  Fixtures,  529,573 

Cotton,        ' '".'    -    .        .  82,000 

Clothing,        .        .        .  1,000,000 

Cooperage,      .        .        .  450,000 

Confectionary,        .         .  900,000 

Distillers  and  Rectifiers,  6,068,221 

Flour  and  Grists,            .  2,839,334 
Foundry   and    Machine 

Shops,         .    •    „.      .  3,657,933 

Fire,  etc.  Safes,      .        .  110,000 

Gas,       .        .        .  j  i    .  2,200,000 

Gloves,  etc.,            .        .  6,000 

Honey,           .        .        •  7,800 

Hats,  Caps,  etc.,     .        .  400,000 

Instruments,  Musical,    .  350,050 

Lanterns,        .        .        .  60,000 

Lead  Pipe,  etc.,      .        .  588,400 

Leather,  Tanning,  &c  ,  .  2,229,515 

Lightning  Rods,      .         .  8,000 


Lime,  :  .. 

Lumber,  v  .  ,  .  . 
Maltsters,  .  .  . 
Nails,  .  .  . 

Oils  .        .        . 

Paints,  .        .        . 

Planing  Mills,  etc.,         . 
Picture  Frames,  etc., 
Patent  Medicines,          . 
Provisions  (and  curers), 
Paper  Collars,        .        . 
Refrigerators,         .        . 
Rolling  Mills  and  Forges, 
Saws,          ,    ;*•.  v       . 
Scales,  V'^*-'"  '. 

Shot,  .'       .        . 

Saddles,  etc.,  and  Trunks, 
Soap  and  Candles,      ~  V 
Ship  Carpentry,  !  . 

Steam  Heaters,  v 

Stone  Cutting,  ".  v  . 
Telegraph  Supplies,  . 
Terra  Gotta,  .  . 

Tin  and  Hardware,  . 
Tobacco  and  Cigars,  . 
Type  Foundries,  .  . 
Varnish,  .  "if".  ; 
Vinegar,  .  .'"  . 
Wire  Fabrics,  .  . 

Total,  . 

Add  for  Miscellaneous, 

Grand  total     . 


$288,332 
800,000 
347,320 
245,744 
3,541,733 
508,000 
8,928,959 
60,000 
218,800 
13,500,000 
160,000 
107,500 
2,229,221 
22,850 
75>°°0 
210,000 
388,485 
334,400 
216,000 
90,000 
1,265,375 
6,000 
122,000 
330,000 
1,750,000 
25,000 
445,000 
209,100 
8,700 

$85,310,213 
3,537,907 


$88,848,120 


So  in  1868  there  were  in  Cook  County  1,034  establishments, 
turning  out  a  manufactured  product  valued  at  $63,110,000. 

The  United  States  census  report  for  1860  gives  the  follow- 
ing for  Cook  County :  469  establishments,  with  a  capital  of 


MANUFACTURES   IN    1870.  135 

85,571,025;  employing  5,593  hands;  paying  §1,992,257  in 
wages,  and  turning  out  an  annual  product  of  §13,555,671. 

The  totals  for  the  city  in  1855  were,  capital,  §6,295,000; 
hands  employed,  8,740 ;  value  of  products,  $11,031,491.  The 
corresponding  figures  for  1854  were,  capital,  §4,220,000;  hands, 
5,000 ;  value  of  products,  §7,870,000. 

The  increase  in  the  value  of  manufactures  during  the  past 
decade  is  therefore  as  100  to  653 ;  or  553  per  cent.,  while  the 
increase  of  commerce  is  but  311  per  cent.,  and  of  population 
170  per  cent.  Even  with  this  tremendous  growth,  we  are  jus- 
tified in  saying  that  the  advantages  presented  by  Chicago  as  a 
manufacturing  point  were  but  just  beginning  to  be  realized. 
Manufactories  were  springing  up  all  around,  promising  large 
additions  to  the  returns  of  1870  on  business  already  established, 
while  several  new  ones  were  in  process  of  formation — among 
these  were  a  watch  factory,  and  a  cotton  factory,  both  of  which 
were  being  organized  on  a  large  scale.  Chicago  manufacturers 
had  gained  a  wide  celebrity,  which  warranted  capitalists  in 
expecting  a  remunerative  return  for  their  outlay.  Before  the 
Pacific  Railroad  was  built,  the  Mormons  preferred  Chicago- 
made  wagons  to  any  other  for  travel  across  the  mountains. 
Chicago  clocks  and  watches,  agricultural  implements,  files, 
boots  and  shoes,  and  clothing,  have  attained  a  reputation  that 
made  ready  sales  wherever  they  were  offered. 

The  returned  incomes  of  1870  aggregated  §21,766,837.  \Ve 
estimated  the  total  incomes,  acknowledged  and  unacknowledged, 
at  not  less  than  $74,000,000. 


136 


CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  COX  FLAG  RATION. 


XXV.     PROPERTY— REAL   ESTATE. 

"VTTITH  such  rapid  onward  strides  in  population,  commerce, 
*  *  and  manufactures,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  value  of 
property  largely  increased  during  this  period.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise.  The  growing  demands  of  business  necessitated  the 
keeping  of  larger  stocks  of  goods  and  the  purchase  of  new 
locations,  while  the  ever  advancing  throng  of  people  spread  out 
in  all  directions,  buying  real  estate  for  residence  purposes,  and 
covering  it  with  buildings,  well  stocked  with  material  wealth. 
Very  much  of  the  capital  attracted  thither  from  other  points 
was  invested  in  real  estate,  causing  a  steady  demand  for  the 
article  that  kept  the  market  on  a  continual  advance,  and  en- 
abled hundreds  to  grow  rich  by  simply  turning  over  the  prop- 
erty. The  growth  of  values  in  different  portions  of  the  city,  is 
shown  in  the  following  table: 


Year. 

South. 

West. 

North. 

Total. 

1840, 

$944,370 

1850, 

$4,633,726 

$1,530,156 

$1,056,367 

7,222,999 

1860, 

20,648,083 

10,513,887 

5,891,542 

37,053,512 

1865, 

40,926,874 

14,359,573 

9,422,730 

64,709,177 

1867, 

113,773,535 

52,073,935 

29,179,374 

195,026,844 

1869, 

141,272,926 

84,956,000 

39,795,969 

266,024,880 

1871, 

148,682,37C 

96,485,350 

43,391,280 

288,559,000 

Previous  to  1866  the  assessed  valuations  were  usually  made 
up  at  about  one-fourth  of  the  actual  value.  In  1866  the  ratio 
was  one-third;  in  1867  it  was  supposed  that  the  selling  cash 
value  of  the  property  was  represented  by  the  assessor's  figures. 
The  assessors  gradually  fell  behind,  however,  till  1871,  when  it 
was  estimated  that  the  real  estate  was  rated  at  about  sixty  per 


PROPERTY REAL  ESTATE. 


137 


cent,  and  the  personal  property  at  thirty  per  cent,  of  its  true 
value.  The  following  should,  therefore,  be  the  figures  for  Sep- 
tember, 1871 ;  the  improvements  are  close  approximations  only: 


South  Division,  Real, 

"          "          Improvement, 
«          "          Personal,       . 

South  Division,  Total,    . 

West  Division,  Real, 

"          "         Improvement, 
"          «         Personal, 

West  Division,  Total,      .        , 

North  Division,  Real,  .  . 
"  "  Improvement, 
"  "  Personal, 

North  Division,  Total,     . 

Total  Land,    .... 
Total  Improvements, 
Total  Personal,       .        . 

Grand  Total, 

Add  for  churches,  etc.,  and  city 

Grand  Total  Valuation  in  1871, 


Assessed  Value. 

.,  $82,609,690 
28,055,500 
38,017,180 

.  $148,682,370 

.   $65,964,930. 

21,667,000 

8,853,420 

.   $96,485,350 

.   $28,357,280 

10,234,000 

4,800,000 

.   $43,391,280 

.  $176,931,900 
59,956,500 
51,670,600 

.  $288,559,000 
property,  not  taxed, 

about, 


Cash  Value. 

$137,683,000 

46,759,000 

126,723,600 

$312,832,600 

$109,941,000 
36,112,000 
29,511,400 

$175,564,400 

$47,262,000 
17,057,000 
16,000,000 

$80,319,000 

$294,886,000 

99,928,000 

172,235,000 

$567,049,000 
$52,951,000 

$620,000,000 


This  is  very  nearly  a  duplication  of  values  within  five  years 
— a  result  only  possible  under  great  activity  in  the  real  estate 
market.  The  sales  of  real  estate  in  1870  alone,  fooled  up 
$42,000,000,  or  not  far  from  one-tenth  of  all  the  property  in 
the  city. 

Up  to  about  1868  the  wholesale  business  of  the  city  was  con- 
centrated between  the  river  and  Lake  Streets.  Wabash  and 

Michigan  Avenues  were  exclusively  residence   thoroughfares, 
12 


138  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

except  that  the  former  avenue  contained  most  of  the  churches  in 
the  South  Division.  Then  the  wholesale  merchants  invaded 
the  avenues,  amid  numerous  protests  from  the  residents,  and  at 
the  time  of  the  fire  some  of  the  largest  stocks  in  the  city  were 
burned  up  on  the  avenues,  and  on  the  three  northern  blocks  on 
State  Street.  The  same  year  Lasalle  Street  was  improved,  and 
became  popular  as  the  home  of  Insurance  Companies  and  com- 
mission merchants,  while  the  banks  moved  toward  that  and 
Washington  Street,  as  the  newspapers  were  gathering  on  and 
near  Dearborn.  Simultaneously  with  this  came  a  lateral  spread 
as  the  people  found  property  in  the  heart  of  the  city  was  becom- 
ing too  valuable  for  residences,  while  it  was  also  too  much 
exposed  to  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the  city.  Then  arose  a 
mania  for  suburban  property,  and  the  railroads  were  appealed 
to  for  more  frequent  accommodation  trains  to  enable  business 
men  to  live  in  the  country  and  enter  and  leave  the  city 
speedily.  Laterally,  too,  the  manufacturing  interests  began 
to  seek  suburban  locations,  and  many  of  them  had  moved  out 
to  the  south  and  south-west  portions  of  the  city,  near  the 
limits.  The  great  impetus  to  this  spreading  out  of  people  and 
energy,  was  the  grand  park  system,  which  was  formally  legal- 
ized by  the  Legislature  in  February,  1869,  and  provided  for  a 
series  of  parks  and  drives  that  would  make  Chicago  superior, 
in  this  respect,  to  any  other  city  in  the  world. 


THE  PARKS.  139 


XXVI.    THE   PARKS. 

A  PORTION  of  the  Fort  Dearborn  Addition  had  been  set 
-^*-  apart  early  in  the  history  of  the  city,  as  a  public  park, 
and  was  improved  by  being  surrounded  with  a  railing,  and  pro- 
vided with  a  few  trees.  Subsequently  a  tract  of  ground  two 
miles  west  of  the  lake,  between  Lake  and  Madison  Streets,  was 
set  off  and  called  Union  Park,  but  was  not  improved  till  after 
the  close  of  the  war.  It  contains  seventeen  acres,  and  an  addi- 
tion of  more  than  two  acres  was  in  contemplation  before  the 
fire,  but  will  not  now  probably  be  made,  though  the  order  had 
passed  the  Common  Council,  tfoion  Park  was  brought  into 
good  condition  by  the  winter  of  1868,  at  a  total  cost  of  about 
$42,500;  it  has  since  been  very  much  improved,  and  is  now 
one  of  the  finest  parks  in  the  country,  extent  being  considered. 
The  sum  of  $12,813.40  was  expended  upon  it  during  the  year 
ending  April  1,  1871. 

In  1866  a  tract  of  eighty  acres,  lying  just  north  of  the  old 
city  cemetery,  on  the  lake-shore,  was  taken  hold  of  by  the  city, 
and  about  $60,000  expended  on  it  to  the  close  of  1868,  in  which 
year  it  was  thrown  open  to  the  public.  It  has  since  then  been 
wonderfully  improved,  no  less  than  $38,971.61  having  been 
expended  on  it  in  the  year  ending  with  March,  1871.  It  was 
extended  by  the  act  of  February,  1869,  to  take  in  the  old  city 
cemetery,  north  from  North  Avenue,  and  to  reach  northwards 
a  distance  of  one  and  a  half  miles,  with  a  width,  from  the  lake 
shore  westward,  of  one-quarter  of  a  mile,  making  a  total  area 
of  230  acres.  Only  the  middle  portion  of  this  had  been  im- 
proved at  the  time  of  the  fire ;  it  contained  a  series  of  lakes, 
nearly  three  miles  of  fine  drives,  and  a  collection  of  wild  ani- 


140  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

rnals  aud  birds.  The  old  cemetery  had  been  practically  vacated 
since  1866,  but  all  of  the  bodies  had  not  been  removed,  and 
the  improvement  of  this  tract  was  in  progress  in  September, 
1871. 

Lake  Park  is  a  narrow  strip  of  ground  on  the  lake  shore, 
extending  from  Randolph  Street  south  to  Park  Row — about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile.  It  was  originally  a  basin  of  water 
separated  from  the  lake  by  the  breakwater  built  by  the  Illinois 
Central  Company,  on  which  their  trains  pass  to  and  from  the 
central  depot  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Street.  During  the  four 
years  ending  with  March,  1871,  about  fourteen  acres  had  been 
filled  in  with  earth,  at  a  total  cost  of  $50,000,  and  $18,032.58 
was  expended  in  the  latter 'year — a  portion  in  grading.  The 
process  of  filling  in  was  much  more  rapid  after  the  fire,  an 
average  of  not  less  than  5000  cubic  yards  of  rubbish  being 
dumped  in  daily  in  the  first  month,  the  material  being  taken 
from  the  ruins  left  by  the  fire.  It  will  contain  about  forty 
acres  when  filled. 

The  other  parks  in  the  city  previous  to  1869,  were  Washing- 
ton Park,  in  the  North  Division,  between  Dearborn  and  Clark, 
and  one  mile  north  of  the  harbor;  it  contains  two  and  three- 
tenths  acres.  Ellis  park,  of  about  three  acres,  near  the  Douglas 
Monument,  just  east  of  the  site  of  the  old  Camp  Douglas; 
Jefferson  Park,  of  five  and  four-tenths  acres,  in  the  West 
Division,  bounded  by  Monroe,  Adams,  Rucker,  and  Loomis 
Streets;  Yernon  Park  of  four  acres,  and  the  Wicker  Park,  of 
about  five  acres.  The  amounts  expended  by  the  city  in  improv- 
ing these,  within  the  last  fiscal  year,  were;  Ellis,  $5,593.28  ; 
Yeruon,  $1,627.70;  Jefferson,  $2,086.63;  Dearborn,  $131.75; 
Washington,  $14.30;  Wicker,  $15.75.  We  ought  also  to  in- 
clude the  Dexter  Park— a  private  enterprise,  for  racing  pur- 


THE   PARKS.  141 

poses,  in  the  south-western  part  of  the  city,  near  the  Union 
Stock  Yards. 

None  of  these,  however,  except  Lincoln  Park,  formed  a  part 
of  the  grand  park  project  authorized  in  1869,  by  three  separ- 
ate Legislative  acts,  one  for  each  division  of  the  city.  Those 
acts  extended  the  limits  to  .take  in  a  portion  of  the  town  of 
Cicero  to  the  westward,  and  provided  that  a  part  of  the  town 
of  Jefferson  should  be  included,  if  the  inhabitants  should  con- 
sent— which  they  did  not.  This  western  extension  included  the 
West  Parks ;  those  of  the  South  Division  were  to  lie  outside 
the  city  limits,  in  the  towns  of  Hyde  Park  and  Lake.  These 
acts  gave  to  the  city  an  area  of  36  square  miles,  or  a  little  more 
than  23,000  acres. 

The  general  features  of  the  park  scheme  may  be  thus  describ- 
ed :  Beginning  near  the  Water-works,  on  the  lake-shore,  five- 
eighths  of  a  mile  to  the  north  of  the  harbor,  a  drive  two  hundred 
feet  wide  to  the  north  end  of  Lincoln  Park,  of  230  acres, 
already  noted ;  thence  westward,  a  drive  or  boulevard  three 
and  a  half  miles  long,  to  one  mile  west  of  Western  Avenue, 
and  meeting  Milwaukee  Avenue ;  thenoe  south  half  a  mile,  east 
a  quarter,  and  again  southward  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  the 
boulevard  (called  after  Humboldt)  extends  to  North  Avenue, 
where  it  meets  Humboldt  Park  of  193J  acres,  lying  one  and  a 
half  miles  north  and  three  and  a  half  miles  west,  from  the 
Court-house.  Then  the  Central  Boulevard  commences  at  the 
south  side  of  Humboldt  Park,  runs  south  three-quarters  of  a 
mile,  then  westward  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  and  again  south- 
ward one  eighth  of  a  mile,  to  Central  Park,  an  irregular  tract 
of  land  nearly  a  mile  long  from  north  to  south,  and  containing 
171^  acres,  the  middle  line  of  which  lies  on  Madison  Street, 
4J  miles  from  the  Court-house.  Thenoe  the  Douglas  Boule- 


142  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

vard  runs  south  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  and  eastward  seven- 
eighths  of  a  mile,  to  Douglas  Park,  containing  ITly^g-  acres. 
From  this,  another  boulevard  runs  south  four  and  a  half  miles, 
and  east  four  and  a  quarter  miles  (nearly  touching  the  Dex- 
ter Park),  to  the  northern  of  two  parks  in  the  South  Division. 

The  whole  of  the  West  Division  parks  and  boulevards,  ex- 
cept the  last  named,  were  all  laid  out,  and  graded,  and  contracts 
let  for  the  planting  of  about  $30,000  worth  of  trees,  at  the 
date  of  the  fire.  Not  less  than  four  artesian  wells  have  been 
sunk,  with  the  most  satisfactory  results.  One  in  Humboldt 
Boulevard  has  a  flow  of  350,000  gallons  per  day,  from  a  depth 
of  730  feet ;  one  in  the  Central  Park  flows  450,000  gallons 
daily,  from  a  depth  of  1220  feet;  and  one  in  Douglas  Park  had 
reached  a  depth  of  780  feet/  A  considerable  amount  of  draining 
had  also  been  done.  The  boulevards  are  two  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  wide,  and  will  form  magnificent  drives  when  completed. 
The  one  south  of  Douglas  Park  had  not  been  specifically  located 
at  the  date  of  the  fire. 

The  South  Park  system  comprises  about  one  thousand  and 
fifty-five  acres,  and  is  in  a  much  more  forward  state  than  that 
of  the  West  Division.  The  Northern  or  Western  Park  contains 
372  acres,  lying  between  Fifty-first  and  Sixtieth  Streets.  From 
the  southern  end  of  this  park  a  broad  avenue,  some  850  feet  wide, 
runs  eastward  for  one  mile,  to  the  eastern  division  of  the  park 
which  contains  593  acres,  with  a  frontage  of  one  and  six-tenths 
miles  on  Lake  Michigan.  The  length  of  the  interior  drives  of 
these  parks  is  14  miles,  and  of  walks  30  miles,  besides  the  one 
mile  of  midway  drive.  A  part  of  the  plan  is  to  run  a  pier  out  into 
the  lake  some  1100  feet,  to  protect  a  harbor  on  the  south,  which 
shall  connect  the  lake  with  a  series  of  meandering  lakes  in  the 
interior.  The  whole  of  the  South  Park  system  had  been  graded 


THE   PAEKS.  143 

and  drained  at  the  date  of  the  fire,  and  much  of  the  roadway 
made,  giving  first-class  drives.  From  these  parks  several  im- 
proved roads  run  east  and  west.  A  drive  along  the  lake-shore  to 
the  old  city  limits  has  been  graded  and  graveled,  and  two  broad 
avenues  run  northward  to  the  distance  of  more  than  a  mile 
each,  connecting  with  the  wooden-block  pavements  of  the  city 
streets. 

The  general  park  system  thus  provides  fully  thirty-three 
miles  of  straightforward  driving,  without  counting  the  length 
of  the  roadways  round  the  parks,  furnishing  an  attraction  to 
equestrians  and  pleasure-seekers  in  carriages  that  is  unequaled 
by  any  city  in  the  world.  As  breathing  places  for  the  masses 
inside,  these  parks  are  probably  too  far  distant  to  be  extensively 
resorted  to  for  some  years  to  come,  except  those  north  and  south, 
but  as  a  real  estate  speculation  on  a  mammoth  scale  they  were 
a  magnificent  success.  The  prices  of  real  estate  in  their  neigh- 
borhood at  once  rose  fully  one  hundred  percent.,  and  great  num- 
bers of  buildings  were  erected  all  along  the  lines  of  the  principal 
boulevards,  while  numerous  settlements,  really  suburban  towns, 
sprang  up  in  various  directions  from  the  central  part  of  the 
city.  The  people  of  Hyde  Park,  the  next  township  south  of 
Chicago,  judiciously  cooperated  in  the  work  by  entering  on  ex- 
tensive plans  for  the  improvement  of  their  streets,  and  effected 
a  radical  change  in  the  aspect  of  the  place  within  three  or  four 
years. 

These  parks  were  untouched  by  the  fire,  except  the  cemetery 
portion  of  Lincoln  Park,  but  their  further  improvement  is  neces- 
sarily suspended  for  awhile,  except  so  far  as  contracts  partially 
carried  out  at  the  time  of  the  fire  were  completed.  The  park  acts 
gave  power  to  the  commissioners  to  raise  money  by  taxation, 
•which  can  scarcely  be  enforced,  while  they  also  provided  that 


144  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

the  moneys  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  lake  front  should  also 
be  applied  to  park  purposes.  That  money  will  necessarily 
be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  city,  to  aid  in  the  work  of  re- 
building the  public  structures  destroyed  in  the  Great  Confla- 
gration. 


XXVII.    TAXATION. 

above-noted  enhancement  in  the  values  of  real  estate 
-*-  was  accompanied  by  a  marked  increase  in  the  amount  of 
taxation.  The  city  authorities  had  never  levied  a  tax  of  so  much 
as  one  per  cent,  for  municipal  purposes  till  1856,  when  the  rate 
was  1T11J — and  not  until  1863  did  it  reach  2  per  cent.  It  has 
never  exceeded  the  latter  figure,  and  was  1£  per  cent,  in  1870. 
With  this  large  increase  in  taxation,  the  city  debt  has  also  stead- 
ily augmented,  till  at  the  date  of  the  fire  it  was  nearly  fourteen 
and  a  half  millions.  The  following  shows  the  amount  raised 
for  municipal  purposes,  by  taxation,  in  each  year  since  the  war, 
with  the  bonded  debt  at  the  commencement  of  that  year  : 


Tear. 
1850, 

1860, 
1865, 
1866, 
1867, 
1868, 
1869, 

Taxation. 

.....$    25,280 
.       ?          373,050 
.        .        .       .        .    -     1,294,183 
'.'  "  *'i        ...         1,719,065 

Bonded  Debt. 

$  2,336,000 

3,701,000 
4,369,000 
4,757,500 
6,484,500 
7,882,500 
11,362,726 
14.103,000 

2,518,472 

3,223458 

3,990,373 

1870, 
1871, 

.   ......        "        .         4,139,798 

BUILDING    AFTER  THE   WAR.  145 

In  addition  to  this  the  city  has  paid  each  year  an  average  of 
about  40  per  cent,  of  the  above  in  taxes,  for  State  and  County 
purposes,  and  a  Government  tax,  which  amounted  to  nearly 
$44,000,000  from  the  commencement  of  the  war  to  the  close 
of  1870.  The  Government  taxes  of  the  last  year  footed  up 
$7,984,198 ;  making  a  total  taxation  of  thirteen  and  a  half 
million  dollars  in  1870,  besides  assessments  for  local  improve- 
ments The  revenue  collections  of  1869  were  $7,694,216. 

The  total  amount  of  special  assessments  made  for  street  im- 
provements of  various  kinds,  since  the  creation  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Works  in  1861,  to  April  1,  1871,  was  $10,648,463.44. 
Of  this  amount,  not  less  than  $2,359,836  was  assessed  in  the 
last  twelve  months. 


XXVIII.    BUILDING  AFTER  THE   WAR. 

SUCH  immense  sums  of  money  as  those  collected  by  the 
city  government  argue  the  carrying  out  of  city  improve- 
ments after  the  war,  on  a  colossal  scale.  But  the  money  raised 
t»y  general  taxation  was  really  small  in  comparison  with  that 
raised  by  assessment  on  different  parts  of  the  city  for  grading, 
draining,  and  paving,  and  the  cash  expended  in  building. 

We  estimated  that  about  6,000  buildings  were  erected  in 
1864,  at  a  total  cost  of  $4,700,000;  these  included  nine 
churches,  two  schools,  and  four  halls  and  public  buildings.  In 
1865  the  number  increased  to  fully  7,000  structures  within  the 
year,  costing  $6,950,000;  these  included  nine  churches,  eight 
schools  and  colleges,  and  six  public  buildings  and  halls.  The 
superior  character  of  the  architecture  now  introduced  is  appa- 
13 


146  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

rent  from  the  statement  that  one  of  these  structures  cost  more 
than  $300,000:  two  cost  between  $200,000  and  $300,000  ;  six 
cost  $100,000  to  $200,000  each ;  forty  from  $30,000  to  $100,000 
each,  and  seventy-two  others  more  than  $10,000  each. 

Hitherto  a  great  deal  had  been  accomplished  in  the  way  of 
erecting  fine  structures,  but  little  had  been  done  with  reference 
to  a  tout  ememble  that  should  please  the  correct  taste.  The 
streets  were  heterogeneity  in  its  most  intense  shape — the  struct- 
ures being  as  irregular  in  design  and  front  line  as  the  vertical 
sections  of  the  sidewalks  were  a  few  years  previously.  But 
now  the  rule  changed.  Parties  about  to  erect  structures  near 
each  other,  for  business  or  residence  purposes,  began  to  consult 
with  reference  to  something  like  uniformity,  and  the  result  was 
a  much  better  order  of  things.  Meanwhile  several  buildings 
were  raised  to  grade,  among  which  we  may  note  the  large  iron- 
front  block  on  the  corner  of  Wells  and  South  Water  Streets, 
weighing  some  thirty  thousand  tons,  that  was  lifted  two  and  a 
half  feet  without  disturbing  even  a  spider's  web  inside. 

In  1866  the  aggregate  number  of  buildings  erected  was 
about  5000 — less  than  in  1865,  but  more  costly,  the  total  out- 
lay being  $8,500,000.  The  number  would  have  been  much 
greater  but  for  the  well-remembered  strike  for  a  day  of  eight 
hours  among  the  building  trades,  which  caused  many  to 
abandon  their  intentions  to  build.  The  list  included  seven 
churches. 

An  enumeration  made  in  the  spring  of  1868  gave  a  total  of 
35,654  wooden  buildings,  and  3712  of  brick  and  stone;  total, 
39,366.  Of  these  32,047  were  dwelling-houses,  3980  were 
stores,  1696  saloons,  and  1307  were  workshops  and  factories. 
In^this  year  the  new  structures  numbered  fully  7000,  including 
19  churches,  erected  at  a  cost  of  $14,000000,  which,  minus 


BUILDING    AFTER   THE    WAR.  147 

those  rebuilt,  gave  a  total  of  43,920  in  the  city  at  the  close  of 
the  year.  The  operations  of  1869  involved  a  total  cost  of 
$11,000,000,  and  those  of  1870  about  $12,000,000.  The 
number  of  buildings  in  this  city  in  September,  1871,  was  not 
far  from  60,000,  or  an  average  of  two  to  every  eleven  persons 
on  the  census  roll.  The  official  valuation  of  buildings  and 
other  improvements,  gives  an  average  of  $1,000  to  each  build- 
ing in  the  city.  Our  estimate  of  a  60  per  cent,  valuation  gives 
$1,667  as  the  average  value  of  each  building  in  the  city. 

Among  the  new  structures  of  this  period,  we  note  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  (1865)  on  the  south-east  corner  of  Washing- 
ton and  Lasalle,  with  two  fronts  of  white  stone,  93  feet  on 
Washington  and  180  feet  on  Lasalle  Street.  The  Exchange 
room  was  88  by  128  feet  on  the  floor,  and  45  feet  in  height. 
The  cost  was  $250,000;  it  was  built  by  a  stock  company, 
called  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  Association,  composed 
exclusively  of  members  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  to  which  or- 
ganization it  was  rented  for  $20,000  per  annum  for  ninety-nine 
years,  in  addition  to  which  some  thirty-six  business  firms  paid 
rent  for  offices  that  netted  a  handsome  profit. 

Crosby's  Opera-house  was  completed  in  the  summer  of  1865. 
It  stood  on  the  north  side  of  Washington  Street,  on  which  was 
a  front  of  four  handsome  stores,  two  on  each  side  of  the  princi- 
pal entrance.  Behind  this  was  the  Opera-house,  90  feet  by 
150  feet,  seating  2500  people.  The  entire  space  occupied  was 
140  feet  by  153.  The  building  was  in  the  Italian  style  of 
architecture,  and  beautifully  ornamented  within  and  without; 
it  cost  $375,000.  A  fine  brick  block,  90  by  100  feet,  was 
also  built  on  State  Street,  at  a  cost  of  $75,000,  to  connect  with 
the  Opera-house  proper.  It  contained  a  music-hall  capable 
of  seating  1800  people.  The  Opera-house  was  opened  April 


148  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

20,  1865,  with  a  first-class  opera  company.  On  the  29th  of 
the  following  December  Mr.  Crosby  failed,  and  in  the  early 
part  of  the  following  year  the  famous  lottery  was  drawn,  by 
which  the  Opera-house  became  the  property  of. a  Mr.  Lee,  who 
deeded  it  back  to  Mr.  Crosby  on  payment  of  $250,000. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  Opera-house  was  built, 
McVickers  Theater  was  remodeled  throughout.  It  was  after- 
ward entirely  rebuilt,  *in  1871,  and  formed  one  of  the  most 
superb  places  of  amusement  in  the  world.  In  1871  the  Opera- 
house  was  also  remodeled.  In  1865.  Smith  &  Nixon's  Hall  was 
built  just  east  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce;  it  was  used  for 
amusement  purposes,  principally  concerts,  for  about  three  years 
— then  converted  into  a  sale-room  for  musical  instruments, 
about  the  same  time  that  Bryan  Hall  was  changed  into  a  car- 
pet store.  In  the  winter  of  1870-71  that  carpet  store  gave 
place  to  the  new  and  elegant  structure  known  as  Hooley's 
Opera-house.  The  Dearborn  Street  Theater  was  built  in  1868. 

A  much  greater  number  of  fine  churches  was  erected  since 
the  war  than  in  any  equal  portion  of  time  previously.  Wabash 
Avenue  in  the  South  Division,  and  Washington  Street  in  the 
West  Division,  seemed  to  have  been  set  apart  by  tacit  consent, 
some  years  previously,  as  church  thoroughfares,  and  new  places 
of  worship  appeared  at  almost  every  block  along  the  more 
thickly  settled  portions,  while  in  the  North  Division,  church 
building  was  equally  rapid,  though  not  concentrated  on  a  single 
street.  And  those  now  erected  were  all  handsome  stone  struct- 
ures, costing  from  $40,000  to  $90,000  each,  beautifully  fitted 
up  inside,  and  furnished  with  fine  organs;  indeed,  in  the  latter 
respect  Chicago  was  taking  the  lead  of  the  seaboard  cities — 
many  of  her  church  organs  having  no  superiors  on  the  con- 
tinent. 


BUILDING   AFTER   THE   WAR.  149 

This  period  was  also  known  as  one  of  magnificence  in  school 
buildings.  The  old  Board  of  Education  was  legislated  out  of 
office  in  1865,  and  a  new  Board  of  School  Inspectors  provided 
for,  to  be  chosen  by  the  Common  Council — one  from  each  wan! 
in  the  city.  On  July  14th  of  that  year  there  were  17  school  dis- 
tricts, with  240  teachers,  and  an  enrollment  of  29,080  pupils,  or 
only  76|  per  cent,  of  all  the  children  of  school  age  in  the  city. 
The  necessity  for  more  school  accommodation  was  so  palpable 
that  in  1866  the  Common  Council  placed  $80,000  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Board  of  Education  to  be  employed  in  the  erection 
of  new  school-houses,  and  the  State  Legislature  at  its  session  of 
1866-7  authorized  the  council  to  issue  $500,000  in  bonds  for 
the  same  purpose.  Before  the  close  of  the  next  school  year  the 
Board  had  purchased  five  additional  school  lots,  and  erected 
four  frame  buildings  of  eight  rooms  each,  besides  commencing 
the  erection  of  a  brick  school  on  the  remaining  lot,  and  extend- 
ing the  accommodations  of  several  of  the  older  buildings.  But 
even  this  large  increase  was  found  to  be  barely  keeping  pace 
with  the  growing  requirements  of  the  city,  and  the  Board 
ordered  the  construction  of  additional  buildings,  most  of  which 
were  of  the  costly  order,  and  a  great  deal  of  fault  was  found 
with  the  Board  for  having  expended  so  much  money  in  bricks 
and  stone,  and  costly  heating  apparatus,  while  so  many  little 
ones  were  left  out  in  the  cold.  Among  these  were  the  Dore 
school,  erected  in  1867 ;  and  the  Holden,  Carpenter,  Hayes,  and 
Clark,  in  1868,  at  a  cost  of  $58,000  to  $74,000  each.  After 
1868  the  Board  was  forced  to  secure  less  expensive  buildings, 
but  with  all  their  efforts  they  were  unable  to  keep  pace  with 
the  growing  demand  for  more  room.  In  1871  the  school  accom- 
modations were  barely  equal  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  number  of 
children  of  school  age  in  the  city. 


150  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

Educational  ^institutions  of  a  higher  order  were  not  forgotten. 
Prominent  among  these  %was  the  University  of  Chicago,  situated 
in  Cottage  Grove,  near  the  old  site  of  Camp  Douglas.  One 
wing  had  previously  been  erected.  In  1865  the  main  building 
was  nearly  completed,  at  a  cost  of  $150,000;  it  covers  80  by 
12C  feet,  and  is  built  of  rough  hewn  stone.  Immediately  to 
the  west  of  this  was  erected  the  Dearborn  Observatory  (iu 
1864),  at  a  cost  of  $30,000.  It  was  supplied  with  what  was 
then  the  largest  and  best  refracting  telescope  in  the  world,  the 
object  glass  having  a  clear  aperture  of  18J  inches,  with  a  focal 
length  of  23  feet.  The  big  telescope  is  fitted  with  circles  which 
enable  the  observer  to  measure  accurately  the  position  of  a  star 
or  other  object  under  examination,  and  is  so  mounted  that  it 
can  be  turned  to  any  part  of  the  visible  heavens  by  the  mere 
pressure  of  a  finger ;  it  is  provided  with  clock  work  to  carry  it 
round  at  the  same  rate  as  the  stars  appear  to  move,  so  that 
when  once  pointed  on  an  object,  the  observer  can  watch  the 
same  point  for  an  hour  together  without  the  trouble  of  chang- 
ing the  position  of  the  instrument.  The  Observatory  was  also 
furnished,  in  1868,  with  a  meridian  circle,  having  a  transit 
telescope  of  six  French  inches  aperture.  With  this  was  under- 
taken the  important  work  (by  Prof.  Safford),  in  conjunction  with 
astronomers  in  a  few  other  observatories,  of  recatalogtiing  all 
the  stars  in  the  heavens  down  to  the  ninth  magnitude  inclusive. 

In  1865  the  Chicago  Academy  of  Sciences  (established  in 
1857)  issued  life  memberships  at  $500  each,  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  funds  wherewith  to  erect  a  suitable  building  for 
their  collections.  Pending  the  completion  of  the  new  edifice, 
at  No.  263  Wabash  Avenue,  near  Van  Buren  Street,  the  collec- 
tions of  the  Academy  were  removed  to  Metropolitan  Block, 
which  was  burned  in  1866,  destroying  over  18,000  specimens. 


BUILDING   AFTER  THE  WAR.  151 

The  new  building,  55  by  50  feet,  two  stories  high,  was  com- 
pleted the  next  year  at  a  cost  of  $46,000,  and  was  thought  to 
be  perfectly  fire-proof.  The  Chicago  Historical  Society  erected 
another  fire-proof  building,  in  1868,  on  the  corner  of  Dearborn 
and  Ontario  Streets,  at  a  cost  of  $35,000,  as  a  part  of  a  struct- 
ure that  should  cost  $200,000  when  completed.  In  1866,  the 
:dd  Metropolitan  Block,  on  the  corner  of  Randolph  and  Lasalle 
Sheets,  was  remodeled  for  occupancy  by  the  Young  Men's  Li- 
brary Association. 

Up  to  this  time  the  buildings  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences 
and  of  the  Historical  Society,  were  the  only  fire-proof  struct- 
ures in  the  city,  except  the  Custom-house  and  Post-office — erect- 
ed in  1859-60.  Next  in  order  was  the  Tribune  building,  on 
the  corner  of  Madison  and  Dearborn  Streets,  and  following  that 
was  the  First  National  Bank  building,  on  the  corner  of  State 
and  Washington  Streets.  Two  or  three  others  were  subsequent- 
ly erected,  prominent  among  which  was  the  Bryan  Safe  Depos- 
itory building,  on  Randolph  Street,  just  west  of  the  Sherman 
House.  Not  one  of  these  noble  piles  escaped,  though  money 
had  been  lavished  in  the  attempt  to  make  them  secure  from  the 
visitations  of  the  fire-fiend.  In  an  ordinary  conflagration  they 
might  have  stood  unharmed ;  but  when  the  whole  city  was 
burning,  the  material  of  which  they  were  composed  fairly  melted 
amid  the  intense  heat  of  the  surrounding  structures. 

A  great  number  of  hotels  were  erected  during  this  period — 
so  many  that  we  can  scarcely  enumerate  them.  In  the  South 
Division  the  Palmer  House,  the  Ogden  Hotel,  the  Pacific  Hotel, 
Michigan  Avenue  Hotel,  the  Bigelow,  the  Nevada,  and  several 
other  minor  ones,  were  all  competing,  or  about  to  compete,  with 
each  other,  and  with  the  hotels  already  in  existence  at  the  close 
of  the  war ;  while  in  the  North  and  West  Divisions  other  struct- 


152  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

ures  were  springing  up,  with  the  same  intent,  though  not  so 
prominent  as  those  first  mentioned.  Indeed,  the  whole  city  was 
bristling  with  hotel  structures,  and  not  a  few  of  them  were  un- 
occupied. Those  in  the  West  Division,  that  previous  to  the  fire 
were  void  of  tenants,  have  since  been  well  filled,  as  the  proprie- 
tors of  the  new  Sherman  and  Briggs  Houses  can  testify. 

The  principal  building  enterprises  of  the  city  during  the 
after-war  period,  were  the  two  tunnels  under  the  river,  the 
Water-works,  the  extension  of  the  Court-house,  and  the  new 
Bridewell. 

As  early  as  1855  a  company  was  formed,  with  W.  B.  Ogden 
as  president,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  system  of  tunnels 
under  the  river,  but  the  financial  depressions  of  succeeding 
years  prevented  the  scheme  from  being  carried  out.  Eleven 
years  later  it  was  found  that  though  there  was  a  bridge  at  an 
average  interval  of  two  blocks  all  along  the  river,  in  the  mort 
thickly  settled  portions  of  the  city,  with  several  others  beyond, 
they  were  totally  inadequate  to  meet  the  demand  for  travel,  as 
the  growth  of  the  city  was  commensurate  with  a  growth  of  its 
lake  commerce  which  necessitated  a  more  frequent  opening  of 
the  bridges — not  less  than  seven  of  which  were  built  in  1868. 
Then  it  was  decided  to  build  a  tunnel  under  the  river  at 
Washington  Street,  which  was  thrown  open  to  the  public  for 
travel  on  the  1st  of  January,  1869.  The  tunnel  cost  about 
$400,000,  and  involved  the  excavation  of  44,000  cubic  yards 
of  clay,  and  the  laying  of  10,000  cubic  yards  of  stone  masonry, 
besides  6000  yards  of  brick  work,  and  5000  yards  of  concrete. 
The  roadway  for  carriages  commences  at  Clinton  and  Franklin 
Streets,  and  is  open  for  a  distance  of  one  block  on  each  side  of 
the  river,  the  excavation  being  protected  by  iron  railings  set  on 
heavy  stone  copings.  From  Market  to  Canal  Streets  the  road- 


BUILDING   AFTER   THE    WAR.  153 

way  is  arched  over  for  a  distance  of  983  feet,  being  divided  into 
two  passage  ways,  each  11  feet  wide  and  15  feet  high.  The 
underside  of  the  crown  of  the  arches  is  2£  feet  below  the  bed 
of  the  river,  which  has  14£  feet  depth  of  water  at  that  point, 
and  is  200  feet  wide.  The  total  descent  of  the  tunnel  is  about 
26  feet.  The  total  length  of  the  tunnel  is  536  yards.  On  the 
southern  side  of  this  tunnel  is  a  separate  passage  for  pedestrians, 
reached  by  a  winding  stairway  on  Market  and  Canal  Streets. 
This  tunnel  proved  so  great  a  success  that  another  was  built  in 
1870  at  Lasalle  Street,  to  connect  the  North  and  South  Divis- 
ions. It  was  opened  but  three  months  Txifore  the  fire.  The 

plan  is  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  first-named  tunnel,  but 

• 

it  contains  many  improvements.  The  cost  is  $549,000.  The 
total  length,  including  approaches,  is  630  yar<^. 

The  Court-house  square  is  the  property  qf  the  County  of 
Cook,  and  what  was  called  the  City  Hall  belonged  to  the  city 
and  county,  the  former  owning  eight  parts  in  twenty-one  of 
the  building,  which  was  erected  in  1853,  and  enlarged  in  1858. 
Ten  years  afterward  a  plan  was  agreed  upon  which  provided 
for  the  erection  of  two  fire-proof  wings,  each  80  feet  wide  and 
130  feet  long — three  stories  high.  The  west  wing,  owned  by 
the  city,  contained  the  offices  of  the  Mayor,  Board  of  Police, 
Board  of  Public  Works,  Fire  Marshal,  fire  alarm  telegraph,  and 
Council  Chamber,  etc.  The  east  or  county  wing  contained  a 
jail  in  the  basement,  and  above  that  the  court  rooms  for  the 
different  judges  of  the  county,  the  county  records,  the  law 
library,  etc.  The  original  design  was  that  the  city  wing  should 
cost  $250,000,  and  the  county  wing  $200,000,  but  owing  to  inse- 
cure foundations,  and  buckling  roof,  and  other  etceteras  of  city 
contracting,  the  structures  cost  a  great  deal  more  than  the  sums 
above  named.  The  cost  of  the  city  wing,  to  March  31,  1871, 


154  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

was  $467,000.  It  was  intended  at  some  future  time  to  take 
down  the  central  portion  and  rebuild  it  265  feet  high,  in  har- 
mony with  the  wings,  with  balconies  outside  to  serve  the  needs 
of  public  speakers.  But  this  part  of  the  programme  was  not 
carried  out.  In  the  spring  of  1871  a  fine  tower  clock  was 
placed  in  the  dome,  by  the  Astronomical  Society,  the  funds 
having  been  raised  by  private  subscription  obtained  by  Mr.  E. 
Colbert,  principally  from  members  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
The  correct  time  was  furnished  to  the  city,  through  this  clock, 
from  the  Dearborn  Observatory. 

The  new  city  Bridewell  was  opened  in  the  early  part  of  1871. 
It  is  a  fine  brick  structure,  costing  $304,637,  located  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  south  branch  of  the  river,  about  half  a  mile 
west  of  Wester^  Avenue.  Only  a  portion  of  the  building  is 
finished,  the  remaining  part  being  intended  to  be  erected  by 
prison  labor.  The  plan  includes  a  main  building  448  feet 
long,  the  central  portion  48  by  60  feet,  and  two  stories  high, 
surmounted  by  a  tower  50  feet  high.  This  serves  as  offices 
and  rooms  for  the  officers  of  the  Bridewell,  and  their  fam- 
ilies. The  right  wing  contains  four  tiers  of  stone  cells  for 
288  male  prisoners;  the  left  wing  is  similar,  divided  into 
200  cells  for  female  prisoners.  The  portions  to  be  subse- 
quently constructed  by  the  prisoners,  were  workshops,  etc., 
running  back  at  right  angles  from  the  main  building,  and  in- 
closing two  areas.  Owing  to  a  division  of  opinion  between  the 
Mayor  and  Common  Council,  the  Bridewell  commissioners  were 
only  appointed  just  before  the  fire,  and  no  superintendent  had 
been  secured  at  the  date  of  the  conflagration.  K 

The  other  important  public  building  of  this  period,  was  the 
new  water  tower,  the  corner-stone  of  which  was  laid  March  25, 
1867.  It  is  situated  about  half  a  block  west  of  the  old  pump- 


THE  LAKE  TUNNEL.  155 

ing  works,  on  the  east  end  of  Chicago  Avenue,  and  consists 
essentially  of  an  iron  column,  three  feet  in  internal  diameter, 
and  130  feet  high,  up  which  the  water  is  forced  by  powerful 
pumps,  and  thence  flows  by  its  own  weight  into  the  water- 
pipes  and  hydrants  of  the  city.  The  column  is  surrounded  by 
a  spiral  stairway,  inside  a  stone  tower,  which  stands  on  a  fine 
stone  base  of  twenty-four  feet  square.  Adjacent  to  the  water 
tower  were  erected  buildings  to  contain  the  four  pumping 
engines,  with  an  aggregate  pumping  capacity  of  71,000,000 
gallons  daily.  The  last  engine  was  placed  in  1871,  and  has  a 
daily  capacity  of  36,000,000  gallons.  These  pumps  are  sup- 
plied from  the  celebrated  lake  tunnel,  which  is  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  be  briefly  described  in  a  separate  chapter. 


XXIX.    THE    LAKE   TUNNEL. 

tunnel  under  the  lake,  which  has  so  often  been  cited  as 
a  proof  of  marvelous  engineering  skill,  is  a  "great  bore," 
which  runs  out  from  the  lake-shore,  starting  about  one  mile 
north  of  the  Court-house,  and  bears  out  under  the  lake  a  dis- 
tance of  two  miles,  in  a  direction  of  some  two  points  to  the 
north  of  east.  At  the  shore  end  a  shaft  nine  feet  in  diameter  is 
sunk  to  a  .depth  of  about  seventy-five  feet.  The  shore  being  a 
shifting  quicksand,  to  a  depth  of  twenty-six  feet,  it  was  found 
necessary  to  sink  a  huge  iron  cylinder  through  it  for  that  dis- 
tance, within  which  the  sand  was  scooped  out  till  clay  was 
reached,  after  which  the  regular 'excavation  was  made,  and  the 
whole  bricked  up  from  the  bottom.  The  first  ground  was 


156  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

broken  on  the  17th  of  March,  1864,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Mayor,  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  the  projector  of  the  tunnel 
— E.  S.  Chesborough,  Esq.,  and  numerous  other  city  officials. 
Then  the  excavation  for  the  tunnel  was  commenced,  seventy 
feet  below  water  level.  Meanwhile  a  giant  crib  was  being  con- 
structed to  be  sunk  at  the  east  end  of  the  tunnel,  and  was  towed 
out  and  sunk  on  the  25th  of  July,  1865,  in  the  presence  of 
Governor  Oglesby  and  a  large  concourse  of  people. 

The  crib  is  forty  and  a  half  feet  high,  and  built  in  pentagonal 
form,  in  a  circumscribing  circle  of  ninety-eight  and  a  half  feet 
in  diameter.  It  is  built  of  logs  one  foot  square,  and  consists  of 
three  walls,  at  a  distance  of  eleven  feet  from  each  other,  leaving 
a  central  pentagonal  space  having  an  inscribed  circle  of  twenty- 
five  feet,  within  which  is  fixed  the  iron  cylinder,  nine  feet  in 
diameter,  running  from  the  water  line  to  the  tunnel,  sixty-four 
feet  below  the  surface,  and  thirty-one  feet  below  the  bed  of  the 
lake  at  that  point.  The  crib  is /thoroughly  braced  in  every 
direction.  It  contains  750,000  feet  of  lumber,  board  'measure, 
and  150  tons  iron  bolts.  It  is  filled  with  4500  tons  of  stone, 
and  weighs  5700  tons.  The  crib  stands  twelve  feet  above  the 
water  line,  giving  a  maximum  area  of  1200  feet  which  can  be 
exposed  at  one  sweep  to  the  action  of  the  waves,  reckoning 
the  resistance  as  perpendicular.  The  outside  was  thoroughly 
caulked,  equal  to  a  first-class  vessel,  with  three  threads  in  each 
seam,  the  first  and  last  being  what  is  called  "horsed."  Over 
all  these  there  is  a  layer  of  lagging  to  keep  the  caulking  in 
place  and  protect  the  crib  proper  from  the  action  of  the  waves. 
A  covered  platform  or  house  was  built  over  the  crib,  enabling 
the  workmen  to  prosecute  the  work  uninterrupted  by  rain  or 
wind,  and  affording  a  protection  for  the  earth  brought  up  from 
the  excavation,  and  permitting  it  to  be  carried  away  by  scows, 


THE   LAKE   TUNNEL.  157 

whose  return  cargoes  were  bricks  for  the  lining  of  the  tunnel. 
The  top  of  the  cylinder  was  subsequently  covered  with  a  grating 
to  keep  out  floating  logs,  fish,  etc.  A  sluice  made  in  the  side 
of  the  crib  was  opened  to  let  in  the  water,  and  a  light-house 
was  intended  to  be  built  over  all,  serving  the  double  purpose  of 
guarding  the  crib  from  injury  by  vessels  and  of  showing  the 
way  to  the  harbor  of  Chicago. 

Down  the  iron  cylinder,  inside  this* crib,  the  workmen 
descended,  and  began  the  work  of  excavating  toward  the  shore. 
They  laid  their  first  brick  on  the  22d  of  December,  1865,  and 
in  twelve  months  more  the  two  sets  of  workmen  met  beneath 
the  waves,  the  last  brick  (which  was  a  stone)  being  laid  by 
Mayor  Rice  on  the  6th  of  December,  1866. 

The  inside  width  of  the  tunnel  is  five  feet,  and  the  inside 
height  five  feet  and  two  inches,  the  top  and  bottom  arches  being 
semicircles.  It  is  lined  with  brick  masonry  eight  inches  thick, 
in  two  rings  or  shells,  the  bricks  being  laid  lengthwise  of  the 
tunnel,  with  toothing  joints.  The  bottom  of  the  inside  surface 
of  the  bore  at  the  east  end  is  sixty-six  feet  below  water  level, 
or  sixty-four  feet  below  city  datum,  and  has  a  gradual  slope 
toward  the  shore  of  two  feet  per  mile,  falling  four  feet  in  the 
whole  distance,  to  admit  of  it  being  thoroughly  emptied  in  case 
of  repairs,  the  water  being  shut  off  at  the  crib  by  means  of  a 
gate.  The  lower  half  of  the  bore  is  constructed  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  bricks  lie  against  the  clay,  while  in  the  upper 
half  the  bricks  are  wedged  in  between  the  brick  and  the  clay, 
thus  preventing  any  danger  which  might  result  from  the  tre- 
menlous  pressure  which,  it  was  feared,  might  burst  out  the 
tunnel. 

From  this  tunnel,  water  was  first  supplied  to  the  hydrants  of 
the  city,  March  2oth,  1867,  and  from  that  time  forward  the 


158  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

people  of  Chicago  had  a  bountiful  supply  of  the  best  water  in  the 
world,  always  clear,  as  being  taken  from  a  point  in  the  lake  too 
far  removed  from  the  shore  to  admit  of  fouling  from  the  city 
sewerage,  or  the  washings  of  the  land  surface  in  a  storm. 

The  tunnel  will  deliver  under  a  head  of  two  feet,  19,000,000 
gallons  of  water  daily ;  under  a  head  of  eight  feet,  38,000,000 
gallons  daily,  and  under  a  head  of  eighteen  feet,  57,000,000 
gallons  daily.  The  velocities  for  the  above 'quantities  will  be 
one  and  four-tenths  miles  per  hour,  head  being  two  feet ;  head 
being  eight  feet,  the  velocity  will  be  two  and  three-tenths  miles 
per  hour ;  and  the  head  being  eighteen  feet  the  velocity  will  be 
four  and  two-tenths  miles  per  hour.  By  these  means  it  will  be 
competent  to  supply  one  million  people  with  fifty-seven  gallons 
each  per  day,  with  a  head  of  eighteen  feet. 

Yet  with  this  enormous  capacity  the  full  working  limits  of 
the  tunnel  bade  fair  to  be  occasionally  reached  in  1875.  On 
one  day  in  1870  it  supplied  28,750,000  gallons,  the  average  for 
the  year  being  about  22,000,000  gallons  daily — added  to  this 
was  the  difficulty  of  forcing  the  water  through  the  immense 
length  of  water  pipe  laid  in  the  city.  In  1870  it  was  decided 
to  construct  another  tunnel  of  seven  feet  diameter,  having 
double  the  capacity  of  the  former  one,  and  to  carry  it  to  some 
point  in  the  south-western  part  of  the  city  for  an  independent 
supply.  Owing  to  a  quarrel  in  the  Council,  relative  to  an  al- 
leged attempt  to  swindle  the  city  in  the  purchase  of  a  location 
for  the  new  pumping  works,  the  contract  had  not  been  signed 
at  the  date  of  the  conflagration.  The  second  tunnel  will  prob- 
ably not  be  constructed  for  some  years  to  come. 

The  total  amount  of  water  pipe  laid  during  the  twelve 
months  ending  with  March  31,  1871,  was: 


THE   LAKE  TUNNEL.  159 

North  Division,  42,628  feet. 

South       "  56,656   " 

West       "  81,443    " 


Total, 180,727  feet 

Or  34J  miles,  being  2J  miles  more  than  laid  in  any  previous 
year.  This  includes  a  large  amount  of  two-feet  pipe,  which 
nearly  completed  a  circuit  of  thirteen  miles  around  the  city, 
supplying  the  smaller  mains. 

The  total  amount  of  miles  of  water  pipe  in  the  city  is  272J. 
The  total  in  1862  was  105  miles;  at  the  close  of  1868  it  was 
195  miles. 

Of  fire  hydrants,  there  were  erected  during  the  year  63  in 
the  North,  74  in  the  South,  and  121  in  the  West  Divisions. 
Total,  258;  making  a  total  of  1552  in  the  city  to  date.  The 
number  of  water  meters  in  use  was  657. 

The  cost  of  the  additions  to  water-works  during  the  year 
was  §602,491.20;  total  from  the  beginning  $4,279,896. 

The  total  length  of  water  pipe  laid  in  the  city  to  date,  in 
feet,  was,  30  inch,  280;  28  inch,  160;  24  inch,  57,576 ;  16  inch, 
31,340;  12  inch,  34,281;  10  inch,  7862;  8  inch,  161,489; 
6  inch,  510,701;  4  inch,  607,048;  3  inch,  27,816.  Total, 
1,438,553  feet,  or  272J  miles,  of  which  34.2  miles  were  laid  in 
the  past  twelve  months. 


160  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GEEAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


XXX.    OTHER  PUBLIC  IMPROVEMENTS. 

i  ''  . 

S"  INGE  the  war  the  city  had  rebuilt  several  of  the  bridges  over 
the  river,  introducing  important  improvements  in  their 
construction.  In  September,  1871,  there  were  not  less  than 
twenty-seven  city  bridges,  erected  at  a  cost  of  §20,000  to  $48,000 
(uch.  In  addition  to  these  there  were  six  railroad  bridges.  On 
the  31st  of  March,  1871,  an  account  was  taken  of  the  travel  over 
the  city  bridges.  The  reckoning  aggregated  246,015  pedes- 
trians and  45,306  vehicles  on  that  day.  The  number  passing 
through  the  Washington  Street  tunnel  on  the  same  day,  was 
7231  pedestrians  and  1616  vehicles. 

The  sewerage  system  comprises  15l£  miles  of  street  sewers, 
besides  drains  to  houses,  etc.,  all  laid  since  1856.  Of  this 
about  15  miles  were  added  in  1870-1.  The  number  of  private 
drains  is  24,990 ;  number  of  catch-basins,  4529.  Total  cost  of 
construction  to  date  (besides  private  drains),  $2,872,488.  There 
were  only  75  miles  of  sewerage  in  1865 — the  amount  having 
been  more  than  doubled  since  the  war. 

In  1865  the  city  had  2500  lamp-posts.  On  the  31st  of 
March,  1871,  the  number  had  grown  to  6555,  of  which  1468 
were  in  the  North  Division,  1963  in  the  South,  and  3124  in 
the  West  Division. 

Previous  to  1865,  only  about  two  and  a  half  lineal  miles  of 
streets  had  been  paved  with  wooden  blocks.  In  the  beginning 
of  1871,  no  less  than  fifty-seven  miles  had  been  paved  with 
wooden  blocks,  of  which  nineteen  and  a  half  miles  were  laid 
the  previous  year.  About  three-fourths  of  the  entire  travel  of 
the  city  was  done  on  the  improved  streets.  The  following  shows 
the  number  of  lineal  feet  of  each  kind  of  pavement  in  each 


OTHER   PUBLIC   IMPROVEMENTS. 


161 


division,  in  April,  1871,  with  the  total  in  miles  for  the  whole 
city: 


Wooden-block,  .        . 

Boulders, 

McAdam,          . 

Gravel,  . 

Cinders, 

Curbing, 

Total  miles  streets  improved, 


Total  streets  in  Chicago,  miles, 534. 


North. 

South. 

Went. 

TotaL 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Mile*. 

66,195 

105,385 

129,533 

57.02 

1,250 

19  900 

3  77 

14,950 

22,040 

27,560 

•  '  .   t    i 

12.23 

8,150 

43,610 



9.80 

9,975 

9,920 

6,020 

4.90 

155,890 

247,638 

338,937 

140.60 

87.72 

red, 

446.27 

There  were  561  miles  of  sidewalks  in  the  city,  mostly  of 
pine  planking.  The  quantity  laid  up  to  the  spring  of  1854,  was 
159  miles. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  lake  tunnel,  for  the  supply  of  pure 
water,  was  the  work  of  deepening  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
canal,  undertaken  by  the  city  as  a  sanitary  measure,  that  being 
the  only  feasible  plan  proposed  for  keeping  the  river  pure. 
That  bayou  had  gradually  become  so  foul  from  the  drainage  of 
packing-houses,  distilleries,  gas-works,  etc.,  with  the  general 
sewerage  of  the  city,  that  it  had  become  an  annoyance  to  the 
people  of  Chicago,  and  a  standing  joke  in  other  cities.  The 
huge  pumping  works  at  Bridgeport,  established  for  the  purpose 
of  feeding  the  upper  level  of  the  canal,  had  been  used  to  clean 
out  the  river  occasionally,  but  the  remedy  was  only  spasmodic, 
a*nd  the  nuisance  was  soon  worse  than  before.  An  act  was 
passed  February  16,  1865,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  the 
city  of  Chicago  might  enter  into  an  arrangement  with  the 
14 


162  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Board  of  Canal  Trustees  with  a  view  to  complete  the  summit 
level  of  the  canal  on  the  original  deep-cut  plan,  with  such 
modifications  in  the  line  as  would  most  effectually  secure  the 
cleansing  of  the  river.  The  city  received  authority  to  issue 
bonds  to  the  amount  required,  and  it  was  provided  that  the 
cost  of  deepening  should  be  a  vested  lien  upon  the  canal 
and  its  revenues,  provided  the  total  cost  did  not  exceed 
$2,500,000. 

Under  this  guarantee  the  Common  Council  appointed  a  board 
of  commissioners,  and  the  money  was  raised.  The  work  was 
begun  in  February,  1866,  and  finished  July  15, 1870,  at  a  total 
cost  of  about  $3,251,621,  the  amount  expended  to  April  1, 
1871,  exclusive  of  interest,  being  $2,982,437. 

The  length  of  the  section  of  canal  cut  down  during  this  work 
was  twenty-six  miles.  The  bottom  of  this  section  is  now  eight 
and  a  half  feet  below  the  ordinary  water  level  of  lake  Michi- 
gan, and  six  feet  lower  than  the  city  datum,  which  was  fixed 
by  the  low-water  mark  of  1847.  The  bed  of  the  canal  has  an 
inclination  downward  from  Chicago  of  one-tenth  of  a  foot  per 
mile,  which  gives  a  current  of  about  one  mile  per  hour.  The 
width  of  the  bottom  is  forty-four  to  forty-eight  feet,  the  slope 
of  the  banks  is  one  and  a  half  to  one  in  the  earth  excavation, 
and  one  to  one  in  the  rock  excavation,  below  the  water  line. 


. 
COMMERCIAL   IMPROVEMENTS.  163 


XXXI.  COMMERCIAL   IMPROVEMENTS. 


ri^HE  needs  of  commerce  demanded  large  extensions  after 
-*-  the  war.  The  harbor  accommodations  had  long  been  too 
limited.  The  process  of  dredging  and  docking  the  river  had 
gone  forward  rapidly,  there  being,  in  1871,  nearly  fourteen 
miles  of  wharves,  built  at  an  average  cost  of  $100,000  per 
mile;  these  included  several  slips,  the  largest  being  those  of 
the  South  Chicago  Dock  Company,  in  the  West  Division,  op- 
posite Bridgeport.  But  much  further  extension  in  this  direc- 
tion was  found  to  be  impossible,  as  the  number  of  vessels  became 
so  great  that  jams  were  frequent,  and  collisions  unavoidable,  in 
passing  up  and  down  the  river.  To  obviate  this  it  was  pro- 
posed to  form  an  outer  harbor,  inclosing  large  tracts  of  wharf- 
age property  on  the  lake-shore,  north  and  south. 

The  first  effort  in  this  direction  was  made  by  the  North 
Chicago  Dock  Company,  of  which  "Wm.  B.  Ogden  was  Presi- 
dent. They  commenced  in  1863  to  put  down  a  line  of  piling 
north  of  the  harbor,  but  it  was  swept  away  by  the  waves,  and 
the  work  was  abandoned  till  1867,  when  it  was  again  proceeded 
with,  though  slowly.  The  plan  comprises  a  breakwater  500 
feet  long,  built  northward  from  the  eastern  extension  of  the 
north  pier.  From  the  northern  extremity  of  this  breakwater 
another  will  run  eastward,  a  distance  of  1500  feet,  to  the  shore. 
An  area  extending  390  feet  north  from  the  pier,  and  west  to 
the  shore  of  the  lake,  will  be  filled  in,  and  through  the  center 
of  this  made  laud  will  run  a  street  from  the  main  shore  to  the 
eastern  channel.  The  block  thus  created  will  be  divided  into  lots 
for  dockage  purposes.  On  the  north  side  of  this  made  land  there 
will  be  a  channel,  110  feet  wide,  penetrating  Michigan  Street 


V 

164  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

as  far  as  Sand  Street.  The  water  in  the  basin  will  be  twenty- 
two  feet,  and  the  largest  vessels  will  easily  float  in  the  canal. 
The  two  will  give  as  much  wharfage  as  is  now  afforded  by  both 
sides  of  the  river,  as  far  as  the  confluence  of  the  two  branches, 
It  is  believed  that  the  extension,  when  completed,  will  obviate 
the  difficulties  heretofore  caused  by  the  exposure  of  the  harbor 
mouth  to  the  lake  current,  which  now  brings  immense  quanti- 
ties of  sand  every  year  from  the  north-east,  and  has  formed  a 
bar  through  which  a  passage  could  only  be  kept  open  by  con- 
stant dredging.  The  entrance  to  these  docks  will  be  through 
a  gap  in  the  pier  near  the  light-house.  When  the  north  line 
of  this  work  is  filled  up  with  sand,  the  breakwater  will  be 
extended  still  farther  north,  the  enterprise  contemplating  the 
covering  of  the  north  shore  as  far  as  Chicago  Avenue. 

Another  dock  extension  was  begun  in  1870,  under  the  charge 
of  Colonel  D.  C.  Houston,  United  States  Engineers.  An  appro- 
priation of  $100,000  had  previously  been  made  by  Congress, 
most  of  which  was  expended  in  1870.  A  breakwater,  900  feet 
long,  is  built  eastwardly  from  the  south  pier,  extending  out  into 
the  lake  as  far  as  the  north  pier,  leaving  a  passage  of  500  feet 
between  them  for  entrance  to  the  harbor.  From  the  eastern 
end  of  this  breakwater  another  line  of  2000  feet  in  length  runs 
southward,  which  will  be  extended  to  4000  feet,  connecting 
with  another  line  running  3400  feet  westward  to  the  present 
breakwater  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  This  plan  gives  a 
basin  of  275  acres,  a  portion  of  which  is  already  twelve  feet 
deep;  it  will  be  reached  by  an  opening  of  600  feet  wide  in  the 
northern  side.  A  further  extension  of  these  docks  to  the  south- 
ward may  be  made  by  private  or  municipal  enterprise  almost 
to  an  indefinite  extent,  should  the  future  commerce  of  the  city 
require  it. 


COMMERCIAL   IMPROVEMENTS.  165 

Several  other  harbor  improvements  were  in  progress;  prom- 
inent among  which  was  the  dock  system,  begun  in  1871,  by 
Hon.  J.  Y.  Scammon,  on  the  1500  feet  of  lake  front  belonging 
to  the  Douglas  estate,  near  Cottage  Grove.  He  had  purchased 
the  right  of  the  Douglas  heirs  to  this  property  for  $25,000,  and 
had  already  built  out  several  piers  1 20  feet  long,  into  the  lake, 
which  had  caught  large  quantities  of  sand  from  the  north-east 
current. 

Besides  the  docks  outside  the  Chicago  harbor,  the  greatest 
improvement  was  at  the  Calumet  harbor,  seven  miles  south  of 
the  city  limits,  and  two  and  a  half  miles  beyond  the  south 
park.  Work  was  commenced  there  in  September,  1870,  under 
the  charge  of  Colonel  Houston,  Congress  having  appropriated 
$50,000  for  the  construction  of  piers  and  the  impcovement  of 
the  channel  of  what  is  known  as  the  Calumet  River.  Two 
piers  are  constructed;  the  north  pier  will  be  1400  feet  long,  of 
which  730  feet  are  already  completed ;  the  south  pier  is  built 
out  to  a  distance  of  430  feet.  The  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor  has  been  dredged  out  to  a  depth  of  nine  or  ten  feet. 
The  total  cost  of  the  Government  improvements  projected  is 
about  $300,000,  which  it  is  believed  will  give  a  harbor  fit  to 
receive  vessels  of  a  heavy  tonnage. 

Outside  the  Government  work,  the  Calumet  and  Chicago 
Canal  and  Dock  Company  had  in  hand  a  grand  scheme  of 
improvements  in  the  summer  of  1871.  They  own  about  6000 
acres  of  land  in  that  vicinity,  and  had  established  coal  and  lum- 
ber works  there,  were  building  a  hotel,  and  had  begun  the 
construction  of  some  ten  miles  of  dockage,  of  which  one  and  a 
naif  miles  was  under  way.  Several  factories  are  located  there, 
and  it  is  highly  probable  that  Calumet  will  ere  long  be  a  pros- 
perous city  of  itself,  though  the  ambition  of  its  founders  be  not 


166  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

realized.  They  shared  in  the  belief,  expressed  by  some  people 
in  farther  distant  places,  that  it  will  be  possible  to  isolate  Chi- 
cago from  the  commerce  of  the  future. 

Previous  to  1865  the  business  of  buying  and  selling  live 
stock  had  been  carried  on  simultaneously  at  several  yards,  at 
great  disadvantage  to  both  buyers  and  sellers.  Very  frequently 
it  was  the  case,  that  the  market  for  cattle  or  hogs  was  quite 
active  at  one  yard,  while  at  the  others  it  was  fearfully  dull. 
Sometimes  the  receipts  at  one  yard  would  almost  equal  the 
combined  receipts  of  all  the  others,  thus  rendering  trade  brisk 
at  the  latter,  and  lifeless  at  the  former;  while  the  commercial 
reporters  from  the  various  papers  had  great  difficulty  from  these 
causes  in  making  up  an  accurate  summary  of  the  daily  market. 
But  the  trade  finally  attained  to  such  proportions  that  it  was 
found  necessary  to  consolidate  it  at  one  point,  which  could  be 
reached  by  all  the  railroads  running  east  and  west.  The  issuing 
of  the  prospectus  was  followed  by  an  almost  immediate  sub- 
scription of  the  stock  of  one  million  dollars,  of  which  $925,000 
was  subscribed  by  nine  railroad  companies.  On  the  1st  of 
June,  1865,  ground  was  broken  on  the  present  site  on  Halstead 
Street,  near  the  city  limits  south,  and  the  work  was  rapidly 
pushed  forward  to  completion,  while  the  Hough  House  adja- 
cent was  erected  as  the  head-quarters,  and  a  bank  was  opened 
for  the  accommodation  of  those  engaged  in  the  trade. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  items :  Opened  for  business, 
December  25,  1865;  area  of  ground,  345  acres;  number  of 
acres  in  pens,  100;  acres  used  for  hotel  and  other  buildings, 
45;  present  capacity,  21,000  head  of  cattle,  75,000  hogs,  22,000 
sheep,  200  horses;  total,  118,200.  There  are  in  yards  31  miles 
of  drainage,  7  miles  of  streets  and  alleys,  3  miles  of  water 
troughs,  10  miles  of  feed  troughs,  2300  gates,  1500  open  pens, 


CHICAGO   IN    1871.  167 

800  covered  pens.  22,000,000  feet  of  lumber  were  used  in  the 
construction,  at  a  total  cost  of  $1,675,000.  The  water  is  sup- 
plied by  an  artesian  well  about  1100  feet  deep. 


XXXII.    CHICAGO  IN  1871. 

WE  have  thus  brought  down  the  history  of  the  city  to  the 
year  1871,  just  forty  years  after  the  organization  of 
Cook  County.  It  will  be  well  to  group  briefly  some  of  the 
leading  facts  of  her  condition  just  previous  to  the  fire,  that  the 
reader  may  gain  a  clearer  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  city  that 
the  fire  fiend  sought  to  destroy. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  population,  area,  number 
of  buildings,  and  value  of  properly  in  the  city,  by  divisions : 

Divisions.  Population.      Area,  acres.  Buildings.  Value  property. 

North, 
Sooth, 
West, 

Total,       334,270         30,000  59,500  $620,000,000 

The  last  column  includes  property  not  assessed  for  taxation. 
The  following  were  the  numbers  of  the  churches  belonging 
to  the  different  denominations : 
Baptist — 20  churches,  8  missions. 
Christian — 4  societies,  2  churches. 
Congregational ist — 13  churches,  2  missions. 
Episcopal — 15  churches,  4  missions. 
Evangelical — 17  churches. 
Independent — 1  church,  5  missions. 


77,758 

2,533 

13,800 

$89,000,000 

91,417 

5,363 

16,300 

340,000,000 

165,095 

15,104 

29,400 

191,000,000 

168  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Jewish — 5  synagogues. 

Lutheran — 6  churches,  1  mission. 

Methodist  Episcopal — 21  churches. 

Presbyterian — 19  churches,  8  missions. 

Roman  Catholic- — 25  churches,  12  convents  and  schools. 

Swedenborgian — 2  churches,  2  missions. 

Unitarian — 3  churches  and  one  other  society. 

Universalist — 3  churches  and  a  fourth  society. 

Friends — 2  societies. 

Miscellaneous — 4  churches. 

Total,  156  church  structures,  and  36  missions  or  societies 
not  owning  church  structures;  besides  the  12  Catholic  convents 
and  schools. 

The  total  attendance  on  these  churches  was  150,000  people; 
number  of  Sabbath-school  scholars,  57,000.  The  value  of  the 
church  property,  including  lands,  was  $10,350,000,  or  an  aver- 
age of  $69.00  to  each  attendant. 

The  city  owned  forty  school  lots,  having  a  total  value  of 
$1,086,735,  on  which  41  buildings  were  erected,  and  11  build- 
ings on  lots  not  owned  by  the  city ;  other  buildings  were  rented. 
The  total  value  of  school  buildings,  including  furniture  and 
heating  apparatus,  was  $1,199,906.  Total  of  buildings  and 
grounds,  $2,286,641.  Of  these,  one,  the  High  School,  was  of 
stone ;  27  of  brick,  and  22  of  wood,  most  of  the  latter  being 
branch  schools.  The  contracts  were  also  let,  at  the  time  of  the 
fire,  for  3  other  brick  buildings,  each  three  stories  in  height. 
Of  the  above  cited  buildings,  34  were  erected  since  1860; 
and  8  in  the  school  year  ending  June  30,  1871,  giving  5639 
additional  seats. 

The  following  are  the  principal  educational  statistics  for  the 
same  year: 


CHICAGO   IN    1871. 


160 


Schools  (I  High;  23  Grammar;  15  Primary ),        ....  39 

Teachersjn  High  School  (males  10,  females  13),    ....  23 

Total  Teachers  in  Schools  (males  33,  females  539),          .         .         572 

Pupils  enrolled  in  High  School,  675 

"  other  Schools  (boys  20,395,  girls  19,762),  40,832 

School  Census  preceding  year, 80,280 

Average  number  belonging,  28,174 

Average  daily  attendance,  27,023 

Salaries  of  Teachers,  $444,635 

Total  expenditures  of  year,  596,388 

Cost  per  Pupil  for  Tuition,  on  average  attendance,          .         .          .     16.45 
Total  Cost  per  Scholar,        "       "  "  .  25.54 

Receipts  from  School-tax  Fund,  "...         $366,025 

"        "     State  Fund,  41,758 

"        "     Rente  and  Interest, 69,299 

Total  received  in  year,  $477,082 

The  amount  of  tax  levied  in  the  year  was  really  but 
1436,008.36  ^1.58  mills),  on  a  valuation  of  $275,986,550. 

The  real  estate  within  the  city  limits,  belonging  to  the  School 
Fund,  was  appraised  at  ....  $2,445,032 
Do.  outside  city  limits,  ....  132,641 

Money  loaned,  Principal  of  School  Fund,  .  128,940 

Wharfing  lot  fund, 68,062 


Total  School  Fund, 


§2,774,675 


The  commercial  status  of  the  city,  given  statistically  in 
preceding  chapters,  may  be  best  understood  by  a  glance  at  its 
railroad  connections.  Chicago  is  situated  at  the  focus  of  a  vast 
network  of  railroads,  which  have,  to  a  large  extent,  supplanted 
the  water  routes  of  freight  traffic  for  all  but  the  bulkiest  lines 
of  goods.  Building-stone  and  brick  still  enter  the  city  by  the 

Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  and  a  part  of  the  lumber  shipped 
15 


170  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

to  the  interior  has  followed  the  same  route,  but  the  receipts  of 
grain  by  canal  in  1870  and  1871  were  very  small,  while  those 
per  rail  were  limited  only  by  the  carrying  capacities  of  the  rail- 
roads; they  averaged  over  1200  car  loads  per  day,  or  12,000 
tons,  through  a  great  portion  of  the  summer  of  1871.  The  lake 
held  its  own  much  better  for  the  shipment  of  grain  East,  but 
the  railroads  leading  to  the  seaboard  were  rapidly  growing  in 
favor  as  shipping  lines  for  grain,  especially  in  winter,  and  it 
was  in  contemplation  to  build  a  railroad  through  to  New  York, 
to  be  used  exclusively  for  freight  purposes — a  project  which 
was  only  kept  back  by  the  fact  that  the  carriers  on  the  lake 
were  willing  to  guarantee  weights  of  grain,  which  the"  railroads 
would  not.  The  receipts  by  lake  had  dwindled  down  to  a  very 
small  point,  till  the  opening  up  of  the  Montreal  route  in  the 
spring  of  1871,  by  which  large  quantities  of  goods  were  im- 
ported direct  from  Europe. 

The  iron  rail  was  the  bond  of  union  that  connected  Chicago 
with  the  world  around.  She  lay  on  the  great  rail  highway  of 
travel  around  the  globe,  and  the  wealth  of  nations  was  poured 
into  her  lap  by  the  long  trains  that  followed  the  iron  horse  in 
his  laborious  puffings  over  the  vast  network  of  rail  that  owned 
Chicago  as  a  center.  We  will  make  brief  mention  of  the  chief 
avenues  of  traffic  with  the  world  around  her. 

Hugging  the  lake-shore  in  its  trend  almost  due  north,  is  the 
Chicago  &  Milwaukee  Railroad,  connecting  at  the  latter  city 
with  lines  running  into  the  interior  of  Wisconsin,  and  opening 
up  valuable  trade  with  its  most  important  towns.  The  orig- 
inal North-western  Railroad  trends  a  little  farther  away  to 
the  west,  striking  directly  into  the  heart  of  Wisconsin,  and  run- 
ning direct  to  the  Green  Bay  and  Lake  Superior  regions,  whose 
mineral  wealth  is  only  just  beginning  to  be  appreciated.  Run 


CHICAGO   IN   1871.  171 

ning  almost  due  -west  is  the  Iowa  Division  of  the  North-west- 
ern Road — formerly  the  Galena,  the  first  to  be  constructed,  and 
the  first  to  make  connection  with  the  Great  Pacific  Railroad,  by 
which  this  line  connects  with  the  mineral  riches  of  the  mount- 
ain territories,  the  vast  Pacific  slope,  and  the  Asiatic  continent 
beyond.  Next  in  order  is  the  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Railroad, 
bearing  away  a  little  to  the  southward,  crossing  the  Mississippi 
at  Rock  Island,  and  thence  spanning  the  State  of  Iowa,  through 
its  most  fertile  portions  to  the  "  Mighty  Missouri "  at  Council 
Bluffs,  where  it  enters  the  Pacific  trail  as  a  competitor  with  the 
North-western.  Bearing  nearly  south-west  is  the  Burlington 
&  Quincy,  which  crosses  the  Mississippi  at  two  points,  both 
of  which  are  on  the  line  of  travel  to  the  Pacific  shore — the 
more  southerly  bearing  across  North  Missouri  to  Kansas,  where 
the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  is  met  by  lines  to  Denver  and 
those  stretching  out  toward  the  rich  Indian  Territory  and 
Texas.  Still  farther  southward  runs  the  line  to  St.  Louis  di- 
rect, connecting  there  with  roads  into  the  interior  of  Missouri, 
and  the  vast  region  beyond.  And  last  in  the  line  of  feeders 
comes  the  mammoth  Illinois  Central,  with  its  sixteen  hundred 
miles  of  roadway  and  connections,  bringing  the  city  into  inti- 
mate relations  with  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  as  far 
down  as  New  Orleans,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  with  the  rich 
lands  on  the  Southern  Red  River  region.  These  lines,  radiat- 
ing from  Chicago  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  from  its  hub,  were 
interlaced  at  short  intervals  by  other  lines,  all  of  which  formed 
rich  feeders  to  those  main  arteries  along  which  flowed  the  life 
blood  that  kept  the  pulse  of  Chicago  beating  healthfully,  while 
two  other  roads  were  already  organized,  and  several  more  talked 
of,  to  enter  Chicago  from  the  country  westward  of  her  merid- 
ian. All  these  formed  the  avenues  of  her  western  trade ;  along 


172  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

them  was  poured  in  a  daily  stream,  of  scarcely  conceivable 
magnitude,  the  rich  produce  of  the  North-west  into  her  lap,  and 
the  same  trains  carried  back  with  them  a  return  commerce  that 
was  of  almost  equally  inconceivable  proportions.  Figures  can 
hardly  convey  an  idea  of  the  extent  of  a  trade  to  which  that 
of  Tyre  in  her  palmiest  days  was  a  mere  foreshadowing,  any 
more  than  a  statement  of  distance  can  enable  the  mind  to  grasp 
the  distance  that  separates  us  from  the  fixed  stars. 

To  the  eastward  there  are  four  competing  roads,  the  Pitts- 
burgh, Cincinnati  &  St.  Louis — first  mentioned,  though  last  in 
the  order  of  time.  Next,  the  Pittsburgh  &  Fort  Wayne;  then, 
running  due  east,  the  Lake-Shore  route,  formerly  the  Michigan 
Southern,  and  lastly,  dipping  a  little  to  the  north,  the  Michigan 
Central.  Besides  these,  a  fifth  road,  the  Grand  Trunk  exten- 
sion, is  nearly  finished,  running  through  South  Bend,  Indiana, 
to  Port  Huron.  These  roads  not  only  opened  up  a  sea-board 
connection  with  the  ports  of  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  Boston,  Portland,  and  Quebec,  and  thence  with  Eu- 
rope, but  they  furnished  a  means  of  reaching  the  Eastern  States 
through  numerous  ramifications.  How  important  to  Chicago 
is  the  last  named  feature,  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  of 
the  grain  exports  of  the  Garden  City  in  1870,  not  more  than 
five  per  cent,  of  the  corn,  and  not  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  wheat 
was  sent  across  the  Atlantic.  The  rest  went  to  supply  the 
needs  of  the  dwellers  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  and  in  return  those 
roads  brought  back  the  products  of  the  Eastern  States,  which, 
though  laden  with  heavy  protective  duties,  were  still  welcome  to 
the  people  of  Chicago  and  the  wide  expanse  of  country  beyond. 

The  Board  of  Trade  had  a  membership  of  1224  in  Septem- 
ber, 1871;  J.  F.  Preston,  President,  and  Charles  Randolph, 
Secretary. 


CHICAGO   IN    1871.  173 

The  railroad  system  thus  established  the  city  as  the  commer- 
cial focus  of  the  North-west.  Her  position  at  the  head  of  the 
great  chain  of  lakes  attracted  hither  the  commerce  of  the  con- 
tinent— East  as  well  as  West — as  the  neck  of  an  hour-glass  is 
the  channel  through  which  flows  all  the  sand  collected  in  the 
bulb  above.  The  railroad  was  instituted  as  the  competitor  of 
the  water  route  only  when  it  was  seen  that  the  process  would 
pay,  and  let  it  be  remembered  that  this  grand  competition  was 
instituted  by  outside  capital.  The  city  of  Chicago  never  in- 
vested a  dollar  in  railroad  stocks,  and  the  merchants  did  very 
little  in  that  direction.  Hence,  the  complaints  of  other  cities, 
that  Chicago  was  reaching  round  them  in  the  matter  of  rail- 
roads, were  unfounded.  The  capitalists  of  the  East  would  have 
been  just  as  willing  to  spend  money  in  the  construction  of  roads 
elsewhere  if  there  had  been  an  equally  good  prospect  of  profit. 
They  tfnited  to  build  railroads  running  to  Chicago  from  every 
direction,  simply  because  they  saw  it  would  pay  to  do  it,  and 
the  sagacity  of  the  merchants  of  the  Garden  City  has  amply 
demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  their  choice  in  the  past,  whatever 
it  may  do  in  the  future. 

And  the  proportion  of  home  manufactures,  in  the  immense 
annual  aggregate  of  over  four  hundred  million  dollars  worth  of 
sales  at  first  hand,  was  rapidly  increasing.  In  1871  it  had  at- 
tained to  very  nearly  one-fourth  part  of  the  entire  amount,  and 
manufactories  were  springing  up  on  every  hand,  in  plentiful 
number,  to  change  that  fraction  nearer  and  nearer  toward 
unity. 

With  such  an  important  position  in  the  world  at  large, 
Chicago,  in  1871,  could  not  be  other  than  a  great  and  powerful 
city,  her  wealth  filling  capacious  warehouses  and  stores,  lining 
scores  of  miles  of  streets,  her  merchants  and  manufacturers 


174  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

princes  in  the  land,  residing  in  palaces  that  found  few  equals  in 
the  old  world,  and  surrounded  by  every  luxury  that  genius 
could  invent  or  art  supply.  The  following  will  give  a  general 
idea  of  the  distribution  of  activity  and  population  in  the  ?ity ; 

A  reference  to  the  map  shows  that  Chicago  is  divided  by  the 
river  and  its  branches  into  three  parts,  designated  the  South, 
North,  and  West. 

A  strip  of  land  all  along  the  lake  shore,  from  a  quarter  to 
three-eighths  of  a  mile  wide,  and  eleven  miles  long,  included  the 
more  aristocratic  residence  portions  of  the  city  and  its  outlying 
suburbs — Lakevietf  and  Hyde  Park.  Nearly  the  whole  of 
this  immense  section  was  covered  with  the  most  costly  build- 
ings. That  part  of  it  in  the  North  Division,  which  extends 
one  mile  from  the  harbor,  was  originally  the  most  exclusive 
portion,  being  largely  held  by  the  oldest  residents  or  their 
families.  Then  Michigan  Avenue,  lying  near  the  lake-shore  in 
the  South  Division,  began  to  compete  with  it,  and  was  soon 
filled  up  with  princely  structures  of  marble,  that  vied,  both  in 
architectural  beauty  and  internal  adornment,  with  the  most 
ornate  edifices  of  Europe.  Then  "VVabash  Avenue,  next  to  the 
westward,  with  the  cross-streets  and  "courts,"  was  filled  up  by 
the  wealthier  classes,  the  line  of  improvements  gradually  spread- 
ing southward,  and  covering  the  avenues  that  run  in  to  the  east 
of  Michigan  as  the.  lake  recedes  from  that  thoroughfare  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  city.  For  a  distance  of  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  south  from  the  harbor,  the  lake  is  girt  by  the  iron  rails 
along  which  passed  the  traffic  of 'three  important  lines  to  the 
great  Central  Depot  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Street. 

The  South  Division,  from  the  river  south  to  Harrison  Street, 
was  pre-eminently  the  business  portion  of  the  city,  and  latterly 
the  march  of  commerce  had  invaded  the  two  principal  avenues 


CHICAGO   IN    1871.  175 

with  tall  piles  of  wholesale  stores,  and  driving  the  inhabitants 
further  southward.  In  this  section  were  situated  all  the  banks 
of  the  city  except  two,  all  the  principal  hotels,  and  all  the 
theaters,  etc.,  except  the  sorry  institution  called  the  "  Globe," 
as  wdl  as  all  the  leading  wholesale  establishments  in  every 
branch  of  trade,  and  many  large  manufactories,  principally  of 
clothing  and  boots  and  shoes.  The  total  value  of  the  real 
estate,  building  improvements,  and  merchandise,  in  this  tract 
of  about  three-quarters  of  a  square  mile  in  area,  was  not  much 
less  than  one-third  of  the  total  value  of  real  and  personal 
property  within  the  thirty-six  square  miles  bounded  by  the 
city  limits. 

Along  the  river  and  its  branches  were  ranged  lumber-yards, 
containing  some  three  hundred  million  feet  of  lumber,  with  pro- 
portionate quantities  of  lath  and  shingles;  docks  on  which 
were  piled  about  160,000  tons  of  coal,  and  immense  quanti- 
ties of  cord  wood;  seventeen  elevators  were  dotted  along  the 
banks,  containing  six  and  a  half  million  bushels  of  grain,  being 
loaded  to  fully  three-fourths  of  their  working  capacity  at  the 
time  of  the  fire;  immense  depots  filled  with  flour,  pork,  meats, 
and  other  produce,  and  several  flouring  mills  at  intervals  along 
the  wharf  lines ;  to  the  northward,  distilleries,  slaughter-houses, 
and  ship-yards ;  to  the  south,  a  host  of  packing-houses.  These, 
with  not  a  few  factories,  composed  the  chief  elements  on  the 
bordering  of  the  bayou,  which  only  became  a  river,  and  then 
by  inversion,  in  July,  1871.  Outside  of  these  lay  the  principal 
planing-mills  and  box  factories. 

West  of  the  junction  of  the  two  branches,  and  spreading  over 
an  area  of  nearly  half  a  mile  square,  was  the  great  machine- 
shop  district,  where  foundries  were  in  full  blast,  and  agricul- 
tural implements  by  the  thousand  were  turned  out  annually, 


176  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

side  by  side  with  steam-engines,  boilers,  car-wheels,  crushing- 
mills  for  the  mines,  burrs  for  flour-mills,  pipes  for  conveying 
water,  gas,  or  steam,  wagons,  carriages,  etc.  A  similar  district,  but 
of  less  importance,  existed  in  the  North  Division,  in  its  south- 
west portion,  bounded  on  two  sides  by  the  docks  on  the  river. 
A  grand  exodus  had  begun  in  the  spring  of  1871,  to  the  south  and 
south-west,  where  several  important  workshops  had  previously 
existed.  Some  of  the  largest  manufactories  were  in  process  of 
transference  to  these  new  quarters  at  the  time  of  the  fire;  and 
new  ones  were  springing  up  on  every  hand. 

Outside  of  these  limits  the  principal  thoroughfares,  in  all 
directions,  to  a  distance  of  fully  two  miles  from  the  Court- 
house, were  occupied  exclusively  for  business  purposes,  except 
where  the  omnipresent  saloon  formed  a  break  in  the  cordon  of 
useful  commerce.  Beyond  and  around  these  were  residences, 
churches,  and  schools ;  most  of  them  of  a  superior  order  of 
architecture,  the  one  great  fault  being  that  a  large  proportion 
of  them  were  of  wood.  Near  the  middle  of  the  southern  limit 
of  the  city  was  the  great  Union  Stock  Yards,  a  town  in  itself; 
and  the  whole  was  surrounded  by  the  magnificent  system  of 
parks  and  boulevards,  which,  when  completed,  would  have 
made  Chicago  as  much  of  a  wonder  in  this  respect  as  she  had 
already  become  by  virtue  of  her  commercial  importance. 

Chicago  was  a  healthy  city.  The  previously  low  and  marshy 
site  had  been  raised  sufficiently  to  permit  of  good  drainage, 
but  not  high  enough  to  allow  any  of  the  double-cellar  style  of 
life  so  common  in  New  York; and  the  broad  prairies  furnished 
go  much  room  for  lateral  expansion,  that  there  was  much  less 
of  crowding  than  in  other  large  cities.  The  sickly  tenement 
system  was  almost  unknown,  and  it  was  very  rare  to  see  one 
residence  at  the  back  of  another,  on  the  same  lot.  Then  the 


CHICAGO   IN   1871.  177 

level  character  of  the  surrounding  country  permitted  the  winds 
to  have  free  course  in  every  direction,  and  the  proximity  to  the 
lake  was  the  cause  of  numerous  gales  that  are  not  met  with  in 
the  interior,  while  that  lake  supplied  the  people  with  an  abun- 
dance of  the  very  best  water.  The  difference  in  these  conditions, 
as  affecting  health,  is  remarkably  shown  in  the  fact  that  the 
death  rate  averaged  3.791  per  cent,  per  annum,  in  the  period 
from  1843  to  1856  inclusive,  while  from  1856  to  1870  it  was 
only  2.397  per  cent,  per  annum.  The  work  of  filling  up  and 
draining  was  commenced  about  the  beginning  of  the  last-named 
period.  This  rate  of  mortality  is  less  than  in  any  country 
in  Europe,  except  Scotland,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  though  the 
greater  changes  of  temperature  in  the  United  States  are  usually 
supposed  to  operate  unfavorably  on  human  longevity.  We  may 
here  note  that  the  average  annual  rain-fall  has  increased  about 
one  and  a  quarter  inches,  and  the  annual  range  of  temperature 
has  been  diminished  several  degrees,  since  the  first  meteor- 
ological observations  were  taken  there  by  the  government 
officials. 

The  statistics  of  churches  and  Sunday-schools  given  at  the 
beginning  of  this  chapter,  show  that  the  people  of  Chicago  were 
preeminently  a  religious  community,  a  fact  attested  by  the 
laige  heartedness  that  has  always  accompanied  their  church 
work.  Their  houses  of  worship  were  noble  structures,  well 
attended,  and  so  liberally  supported  that  Chicago  ministers 
wore  among  the  most  talented  of  the  land,  and  drew  better 
salaries  than  the  pastors  of  the  majority  of  churches — East  or 
West.  The  contributions  of  the  churches  to  missionary  work, 
to  the  erection  and  endowment  of  theological  colleges,  were 
always  large;  and  the  help  they  extended  so  continuously  and 
lavishly  to  the  boys  in  blue  during  the  war  for  the  suppression 


178  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT    CONFLAGRATION. 

of  the  rebellion,  covered  them  with  lasting  honor.  We  may 
not  pass  without  note  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
formed  by  the  general  church  membership,  which  gave  rise  to 
the  building  and  rebuilding  of  Farwell  Hall,  and  has  set  an 
example  of  working  in  the  Master's  service  that  has  been  copied 
in  the  church  work  of  many  other  cities. 

As  an  educational  point  Chicago  took  high  rank.  Its  school 
buildings  were  large,  well  lighted,  heated,  and  ventilated,  and 
supplied  with  good  teachers,  most  of  whom  had  been  admirably 
trained  in  the  normal  department  of  the  High  School,  on  apian 
which  is  acknowledged  to  be  without  a  superior  in  the  world. 
The  one  great  fault  was  that  the  number  of  children  grew 
more  rapidly  than  school  accommodations  could  be  provided  for 
them  ;  and  to  this  cause,  rather  than  to  any  alleged  superiority 
in  teaching,  is  to  be  attributed  the  fact  that  not  less  than  sixty- 
five  private  schools  and  colleges  existed  in  the  city,  besides  a 
few  others  in  which  a  purely  technical  instruction  was  given, 
as  in  book-keeping  or  dentistry.  The  county  had  also  a  flour- 
ishing normal  school  at  Englewood,  near  the  southern  limits 
of  the  city. 

Of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  the  city  had  its  full 
share.  The  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  and  Congregation alists  all 
had  flourishing  colleges — the  Baptist  institution  having  a  well- 
attended  law  school,  and  an  astronomical  observatory,  with 
one  of  the  three  largest  refracting  telescopes  in  the  world  ;  while 
the  Methodists  were  represented  in  not  less  than  three  different 
institutes  in  Evanston,  twelve  miles  north  of  the  city,  and  had 
a  connection  with  the  Chicago  Medical  College.  The  Catholics 
had  a  training  school  for  the  priesthood,  of  a  high  grade.  Of 
medical  schools  there  were  not  less  than  six,  one  throwing  its 
doors  open  to  women. 


CHICAGO   IN   1871.  179 

In  a  purely  scientific  way,  the  city  was  represented  by  the 
Astronomical  Society,  in  connection  with  the  observatory  above 
referred  to,  and  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  had  a  valuable 
collection  of  specimens,  embracing  the  geology,  flora,  and  fauna 
of  the  North-west,  io  its  most  extended  sense.  The  votar'es 
of  pure  science  in  the  city  were  numerous.  Among  them  Are 
may  name  Colonel  Foster,  late  President  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science;  Dr.  Stimpson,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Academy  of  Sciences;  H.  A.  Johnson,  M.  D.j  J.  H. 
Rauch,  M.  D.,  the  Sanitary  Statistician  ;  Professors  Blaney  and 
De  la  Fontaine,  and  Mr.  Eberts,  chemical  investigators;  Pro- 
fessor McChesney;  Kennicott,  the  late  eminent  naturalist; 
Professor  Safford,  of  the  Observatory,  who  was  known  in  early 
life  as  a  mathematical  prodigy;  and  Colbert,  a  voluminous 
writer  on  astronomy  and  its  kindred  sciences.  Microscopic 
investigators  were  numerous ;  we  can  scarcely  name  S.  A. 
Briggs  and  O.  S.  Westcott,  without  doing  injustice  by  omitting 
others.  The  patrons  of  science  were  many ;  among  them  Hon. 
J.  Y.  Scammon  deserves  most  honorable  mention. 

In  its  social  aspects  Chicago  was  probably  not  very  different 
from  other  cities.  There  were,  of  course,  many  poor  people 
within  her  borders,  but  pauperism  on  the  European  scale  was 
a  thing  unknown.  The  rapid  rise  in  the  value  of  real  estate 
had  made  many  rich,  while  others  had  grown  wealthy  in  trade  ; 
the  number  of  well-to-do  people  forming  a  larger  per  centage 
of  the  population  than  is  usual  in  great  cities.  A  few  had 
always  prided  themselves  on  being  "  First  Families ;"  but  it 
was  not  till  about  two  years  before  the  fire  that  a  snobbish 
caterer  found  himself  sustained  in  the  attempt  to  form  a  direct- 
ory of  those  who  were-admissible  into  first-class  society.  The  dis- 
tinctions which  are  kept  up  so  closely  in  most  other  places  found 


180  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

but  few  advocates,  and  there  was  really  much  more  than  the 
average  of  friendly  feeling  between  rich  and  poor,  though  not 
much  time  was  wasted  in  words.  Indeed,  the  genuine  Chica- 
goan,  whatever  his  circumstances,  had  always  some  thing  to  do 
or  to  think  of.  A  few  loafers  could  be  found,  bat  they  were 
importations — not  indigenous  to  the  soil. 

That  great  numbers  of  the  residents  of  Chicago  were  steeped 
in  vice,  and  deeply  tainted  with  crime,  is  too  true ;  that  she  was 
especially  wicked,  as  compared  with  other  cities,  we  most  em- 
phatically deny.  Chicago  loose-livers  were  notoriously  fast,  and 
some  of  her  rogues  exhibited  an  audacity  not  always  to  be  en- 
countered elsewhere,  outside  of  JSTew  York.  This  is  admitted. 
But  the  police  records  show  no  larger  proportion  of  crime  there 
than  in  other  cities,  and  there  are  few  that  have  been  governed 
by  so  small  a  per  centage  of  police  force.  The  true  cause  of  the 
bad  character  of  Chicago  abroad  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
some  of  her  newspapers  were  in  the  habit,  for  many  years,  of 
publishing  to  the  world  every  little  scandal  that  floated  in  soci- 
ety, whether  trite  or  not,  which  the  press  of  other  cities  would 
have  passed  by  in  silence.  The  divorce  business  is  easily  ex- 
plained. The  dissatisfied  ones  of  other  places  fled  to  Chicago, 
as  to  Indiana,  in  great  numbers,  because  the  courts  had  an  ex- 
peditious way  of  dealing  with  such  cases.  That  business  has 
long  been  stopped,  and  the  air  of  the  courts  is  purified. 

Chicago  was  celebrated  for  her  high  appreciation  of  art,  and 
the  liberal  patronage  she  accorded  to  it.  Painting  and  statuary 
flourished  in  her  midst,  and  some  of  her  artists  had  attained  a 
world-wide  fame.  We  need  only  mention  Healy,  as  a  master 
on  canvas,  and  Volk,  as  the  author  of  the  statue  of  Douglas 
and  the  bust  of  Lincoln.  Previous  to  1860,  there  was  little  of 
the  artistic  element  in  the  city.  Since  then  large  numbers  of 


CHICAGO   IX   1871.  181 

artists  have  been  attracted  thither,  and  the  residences  of  many 
prominent  citizens  adorned  with  some  of  the  best  works  of  art 
— ancient  and  modern.  The  establishment  of  art  galleries  was 
fostered,  and  that  in  the  Opera-house  was  moderately  well 
supported,  while  many  artists  clustered  around  it.  In  1870  an 
Academy  of  Design  was  established,  in  a  building  especially 
erected  for  the  purpose  on  Adams  Street,  near  the  Custom- 
house, which  was  conducted  under  encouraging  auspices  in 
1871. 

Music  and  the  drama  nowhere  found  more  enlightened  or 
hearty  encouragement.  The  Opera-house  "  made  no  sign  "  in 
1871,  beyond  preparing,  by  a  thorough  overhauling,  for  the 
winter  season.  But  it  had  previously  been  well  patronized 
when  first-class  concert  or  operatic  talent  was  on  the  boards ;  the 
place  was  too  large  for  dramatic  entertainments.  Farwell  Hall 
had  recently  received  a  first-class  orchestra  organ,  and  had 
recently  become  quite  popular  for  concerts.  Theodore  Thomas 
there  made  his  best  hits.  McVicker's  Theater  had  been  en- 
tirely rebuilt  a  few  months  before  the  fire,  and  was  as  attractive 
a  place  as  could  be  found  in  the  United  States;  it  was  generally 
run  on  the  "Star"  principle.  Wood's  Museum  contained 
some  half  a  million  "  hobjects  hof  hinterest,"  in  addition  to  its 
stock  company,  which  was  one  of  the  best,  and  its  dramatic  en- 
tertainments were  uniformly  well  attended.  The  Dearborn 
Street  Theater,  erected  in  1868,  was  occupied  by  the  Wyndharn 
Comedy  Troupe  in  the  summer  of  1871,  and  was  doing  a  rush- 
ing business.  Hooley's  Opera-house  (formerly  Bryan  Hall) 
was  doing  a  paying  business  under  the  management  of  Frank 
Aiken,  formerly  of  the  Museum.  The  Globe  Theater,  in  the 
West  Division,  constructed  on  the  barn  principle,  in  1870,  was 
closed  in  1871  (re-opened  by  Colonel  Wood  after  the  fire}. 


182  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

Besides  these,  there  were  several  other  minor  places  of  amuse- 
ment not  necessary  to  be  specified ;  and  the  German  Theater, 
on  North  Wells  Street,  furnished  dramatic  entertainments  in 
the  Teutonic  tongue. 

As  a  musical  center  the  city  really  stood  forth  prominently 
in  the  United  States.  Two  organists,  Creswold  and  Buck,  who 
had  only  two  other  peers  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic;  Pease, 
as  a  pianist,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  other  professional  musi- 
cians, without  counting  teachers,  many  of  them  ranking  with 
the  best  performers  of  Europe,  not  to  speak  of  vocal  talent  of 
no  mean  order — these  flourished  in  .the  city  where  more  than 
two  thousand  pianos  were  sold  annually,  with  thousands  of 
other  instruments,  and  many  tons  of  sheet  music,  much  of 
which  was  written  by  home  composers.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
opera  singers  and  concertists  looked  for  the  verdict  of  such  a 
wide-spread  musical  culture  with  as  much  anxiety  as  for  that 
of  the  seaboard  cities. 

The  superior  intelligence  of  the  people  was  accurately  re- 
flected in  its  newspaper  press,  which  was  well  supported,  and 
occupied  the  front  rank  of  journalism.  The  loading  dailies 
of  Chicago  expended  much  more  money  than  those  of  New 
York  in  the  collection  of  news,  and  their  columns  were  con- 
ducted with  marked  ability;  while  the  corps  of  editors  and 
-writers  were  ample.  The  Chicago  Press  Club  had  about  eighty- 
seven  members,  of  whom  seventy  were  workers  on  the  follow- 
ing daily  papers: 

The  Tribune  (Republican),  owned  by  a  stock  company,  worth 
about  $1,250,000,  Horace  White,  editor-in-chief;  the  Times 
(Democratic),  Wilbur  F.  Storey,  editor  and  proprietor;  the 
Evening  Journal  (Republican),  C.  L.  Wilson,  editor  and  pro- 
prietor; the  Evening  Post  '(Republican),-  D.  H.'Blakely,  editor 


CHICAGO   IN    1871.  183 

and  principal  proprietor;  the  Republican  (Independent),  J.  B. 
McCullagh,  editor  and  part  proprietor;  the  Evening  Mail 
(Republican),  stock  company,  H.  R.  Hobart,  editor;  the 
Union;  the  Staats-ZcUung,  German  (Republican),  A.  C.  Hesing, 
proprietor,  H.  Raster,  editor-in-chief;  and  the  Volks  Zeitung, 
German.  These  had  an  aggregate  circulation  of  78,500  copies 
daily,  besides  tri- weekly  and  weekly.  The  religious  press 
was  represented  ably  by  the  Advance  (Congregational  ist),  the 
Interior  (Presbyterian),  the  N.  W.  Christian  Advocate  (Meth- 
odist), and  the  Standard  (Baptist).  These  were  issued  weekly, 
and  had  an  aggregate  circulation  of  75,000  copies.  The  Lake- 
side Monthly  was  the  leading  magazine ;  the  Bureau  also  having 
a  good  circulation  as  an  organ  of  the  Protectionists. 

The  total  number  of  regular  publications  in  the  city,  daily, 
weekly,  and  monthly,  was  about  eighty.  The  list  would  be 
much  extended  if  we  included  all  claimants  to  the  title. 

In  the  matter  of  public  libraries  the  city  was  deficient,  but  a 
united  effort  was  being  made,  just  before  the  fire,  to  establish  a 
library  on  a  comprehensive  plan,  which  would  probably  have 
been  successful  but  for  the  catastrophe.  The  collections  of  the 
Historical  Society  included  some  sixty  thousand  bound  volumes, 
and  over  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pamphlets,  besides  full 
sets  of  the  leading  daily  papers  of  the  city,  a  great  many  valu- 
able MSS.,  a  fine  collection  of  paintings,  and  numerous  war 
relics.  The  Young  Men's  Association  Library  contained  some 
twenty  thousand  volumes,  including  a  full  set  of  the  English 
Patent  Office  Reports.  Besides  these  there  were  the  Catholic 
Library,  Cobb's  Library  (seven  thousand),  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  Library,  and  a  smaller  church  library 
just  in  process  of  formation,  on  Michigan  Avenue.  The  Law 


184  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

Library,  in  the  Court-house,  was  one  of  the  largest  and  best  in 
existence. 

Private  libraries  were,  however,  numerous  and  valuable. 
Among  the  best  we  note  those  of  E.  B.  McCagg  (philological), 
J.  Y.  Scammon  (Swedenborgian),  I.  N.  Arnold,  E.  H.  Sheldon, 
Obadiah  Jackson,  E.  G.  Asay,  G.  F.  Rumsey,  and  H.  H.  Shu- 
feldt.  Besides  these  there  were  very  many  medical  and  law 
libraries,  with  good  collections  of  scientific  works,  the  property 
of  individuals  and  small  societies.  The  book  business  was  a 
large  one,  the  annual  sales  of  the  three  leading  houses  aggre- 
gating over  three  millions  of  dollars;  these  included  several 
valuable  works  by  Chicago  authors,  besides  no  small  amount 
of  trashy  matter  of  home  production. 

We  close  our  sketch  of  Chicago  in  1871,  by  a  brief  reference 
to  the  city  government. 

The  Mayor,  chosen  every  two  years,  was  the  nominal  head, 
but  had  little  beyond  a  veto  power,  with  the  privilege  of  mak- 
ing a  few  nominations,  to  be  confirmed  or  rejected  by  the  Coun- 
cil. Colonel  R.  B.  Mason  was  Mayor  at  the  time  of  the  fire. 
Joseph  Medill  was  elected  to  the  office,  November  7,  1871. 

The  Common  Council  consisted  of  forty  aldermen,  two  from 
each  ward,  one  of  the  two  being  elected  each  year  for  a  two- 
year  term.  The  presiding  officer  was  chosen  by  the  Council 
from  among  its  own  members.  C.  C.  P.  Holden  was  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  at  the  time  of  the  fire. 

The  Board  of  Supervisors  was  a  county  organization,  to 
which  was  elected  one  member  from  each  ward,  and  two  from 
each  division  of  the  city.  • 

The  Board  of  Fire  and  Police  Commissioners  consisted  of 
three  members:  T.  B.  Brown,  President,  Fred.  Gund,  and 
Mark  Sheridan.  This  body  was  organized  in  1861,  and  had 


CHICAGO  IN    1871.  185 

full  authority  over  the  two  departments  named,  the  only  limita- 
tion being  that  the  working  expenses  were  paid  by  taxation, 
ordered  by  the  Common  Council.  The  members  were  elected 
by  the  people.  The  police  force  consisted  of  425  men,  includ- 
ing officers ;  W.  W.  Kennedy  was  Superintendent,  and  Wells 
Sherman  Deputy  Superintendent.  The  Fire  Department,  R»  A. 
Williams,  Fire  Marshal,  comprised  about  200  men,  working  17 
steam  fire-engines,  besides  trucks,  horse-carts,  fire-escapes,  etc. 
The  Fire  Alarm  Telegraph,  E.  B.  Chandler,  Superintendent, 
had  206  signal-boxes  distributed  over  the  city. 

The  Board  of  Public  Works  consisted  of  three  members ;  J. 
Me  Arthur,  W.  H.  Carter,  and  Redmond  Prendiville.  They 
had  full  control  of  the  street  work,  public  buildings  (except 
xihools),  bridges,  etc.,  with  power  to  make  assessments  on  prop- 
erty benefited,  subject  to  approval  of  the  Council.  The  mem- 
bers were  nominated  by  the  Mayor,  and  confirmed  by  the 
Council.  E.  S.  Chesborough  was  City  Engineer. 

The  Board  of  Education  consisted  of  one  member  from  each 
of  the  twenty  wards  of  the  city,  appointed  by  the  Council. 
They  had  charge  of  school  buildings,  appointment  of  teachers, 
choice  of  text-books,  and  general  school  regulations.  E.  F. 
Runyan  was  President  of  the  Board,  and  J.  L».  Pickard  Super- 
intendent of  schools. 

The  Board  of  Health,  organized  in  1867,  had  charge  of 
sanitary  regulations,  and  the  Sanitary  Superintendent,  J.  H. 
Rauch,  M.  D.,  prepared  the  vital  statistics,  which  are  widely 
noted  for  their  fullness  and  accuracy. 

The  three  boards  of  Park  Commissioners,  and  their  functions, 
have  been  noted  in  the  chapter  on  Public  Parks. 

Besides  these,  the  principal  corporation  officers  were  a  City 

Clerk,  Corporation  Counsel,  City  Attorney,  and  Tax  Commia- 
16 


186  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION". 

sioner,  with  assistants.  There  were  three  Police  Courts,  one 
for  each  division  of  the  city.  The  Courts  of  Record  being 
United  States,  or  State  organizations,  were  not  city  institutions 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  terra,  though  the  courts  were  held  in 
Chicago.  There  wer2  three  Superior,  four  Circuit,  and  one 
County  Court  Judge. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  city  government,  and  many 
charges  of  incompetency  and  corruption  made.  The  greatest 
faults  of  the  system  have  undoubtedly  arisen  from  the  fact  that 
different  individuals  had  been  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the" State 
capital  at  every  session  of  the  Legislature,  and  there  log-rolling 
special  acts  through  to  suit  themselves  or  their  friends.  In 
conformity  with  their  wishes  new  departments  were  created,  or 
old  ones  changed,  so  as  to  give  them  ample  powers  independent 
of  all  the  rest.  Thus,  the  Board  of  Fire  and  Police  Commis- 
sioners was  almost  independent  of  the  Council,  and  entirely  so 
of  the  Mayor.  The  same  was  true  of  the  Board  of  Public 
Works,  to  a  rather  more  limited  extent.  The  Board  of  Health 
was  independent  of  all  these,  except  in  the  matter  of  salaries; 
the  Board  of  Education  acted  at  its  own  sweet  will,  and  the 
Boards  of  Park  Commissioners  did  not  need  even  to  say  "by 
your  leave"  to  any  other  city  functionary,  or  department.  The 
Common  Council  certainly  contained  several  men  who  were  not 
particularly  wise,  and,  perhapn,  a  few  whose  ambition  was  to 
"make"  out  of  the  people.  The  Board  of  Supervisors  was 
even  nearer  to  a  brilliant  mediocrity  than  the  Council.  But 
we  are  not  aware  that  the  city  authorities  were  dishonest,  or  its 
officials  incompetent,  though  the  city  was  so  rich  that  there  was 
a  strong  temptation  to  unscrupulous  men  to  expend  large  sums 
of  money  in  corrupting  others,  that  they  might  Tammanyize  a 
return  of  tenfold  on  the  outlay.  The  Mayor  was  little  more 


CHICAGO   IN    1871.  187 

than  a  figure-head,  his  membership  of  the  several  Boards,  and 
presidency  of  the  Council,  having  been  abolished  by  recent 
legislative  acts. 

It  is  really  a  wonder  that  the  city  authorities  of  Chicago 
should  have  accomplished  so  much,  and  worked  together  so 
harmoniously  under  such  circumstances,  especially  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  rapid  growth  of  the  city,  and  the  radical 
changes  in  aspect  perpetually  recurring,  needed  the  wisdom  of 
a  Solon  to  frame  ordinances  that  would  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  case.  There  is  not  one  of  the  departments  of  the  city 
government  that  has  not  accomplished  labors  equally  difficult 
with  those  of  Hercules,  and  some  of  her  city  improvements  are 
to-day  ranked  among  the  wonders  of  the  world. 

And  this  was  Chicago  in  her  prosperity.  Great  as  she  was 
then,  she  proved  herself  even  greater  in  the  day  of  an  affliction 
so  deep  that  it  caused  a  throb  of  anguish  throughout  the  whole 
civilized  world. 


SCIENCE  OF  THE  FIRE. 


THE  CONFLAGRATIONS  IN  CHICAGO  AND  THE  LUMBER  RE- 
GIONS OF  THE  NORTH-WEST — A  STARTLING  CHAPTER 
IN  THE  WORLD'S  HISTORY — METEOROLOGICAL  AND  CLI- 
MATIC CHANGES  INVOLVED — THE  CAUSE — EXTRAORDI- 
NARY DROUGHT — SUN  SPOTS. 

/CHICAGO  was  far  from  being  alone  as  a  subject  for  the 
^-'  dread  visitation  of  fire.  The  first  half  of  October,  1871, 
will  long  be  remembered  all  over  the  United  States  as  a  time  of 
wide-spread  conflagration.  The  fires  raged  in  the  lumber  dis- 
tricts of  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  and  Michigan,  in  the  woods  of 
New  York  State,  and  in  many  of  the  cities  of  the  Union  from 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  San  Francisco.  We  propose,  in  this 
chapter,  to  take  a  brief  glance  at  the  effects  of  the  great  confla- 
gration upon  the  general  conditions  of  the  earth's  surface ;  but 
the  discussion  must  take  in  a  wider  field  than  that  bounded  by 
the  limits  of  the  Garden  City.  In  the  chemical  and  meteoro- 
logical changes  evolved,  the  Chicago  fire  really  acted  but  a  sub- 
ordinate part — though  immense  in  itself,  it  was  but  small  in 
»...  ,  proportion  to  the  whole. 

It  is  yet  too  early  to  make  an  accurate  estimate  of  the  area 
traversed  by  the  fire  in  the  forests  of  the  North-western  States. 

That  can  only  be  done  after  the  whole  ground  has  been  re-sur- 
(188) 


SCIENCE   OF  THE   FIKE.  189 

veyed.  But  the  very  lowest  estimate  we  can  make  places  the 
amount  of  timbered  land  actually  burned  over  at  not  less  than 
480,000  acres,  of  which  200,000  acres  are  in  Michigan.  This 
is  equal  to  750  square  miles  of  territory,  containing  the  mate- 
rial that  would  yield  a  product  of  1,800,000,000  feet  of  lumber 
for  the  market,  or  nearly  as  much  as  Chicago  has  received  dur- 
ing the  past  two  years. 

At  least  an  equal  extent  of  other  than  timbered  land  was 
burned  over,  including  what  are  technically  called  "clearings," 
where  the  trees  have  been  cut  down,  leaving  vast  quantities  of 
combustible  material;  and  many  hundreds  of  farms,  some  of 
them  a  long  way  removed  from  the  lumber  regions.  The  total 
area  of  country  burned  over,  wooded  and  open,  can  not  be  less 
than  one  thousand  square  miles,  and  is  probably  very  much 
more  than  that  amount. 

And  this  vast  tract  of  country  was  completely  denuded. 
The  ordinary  fire  in  the  woods  only  burns  up  the  brush  and 
the  boughs  of  trees,  leaving  the  trunks  standing,  with  a  mere 
char  on  the  outside;  they  can  still  be  utilized  for  lumber,  pro- 
vided they  are  cut  down  and  thrown  into  the  water  before  the 
well-known  borer  has  a  chance  to  attack  them.  But  in  the 
fires  of  October,  1871,  a  large  proportion  of  the  trees  were 
burned  through  to  the  core,  and  fell  to  the  ground,  little  better 
than  attenuated  sticks  of  charcoal.  It  was  a  destroying  fire, 
that  literally  burned  up  "  root  and  branch ;"  while  the  fences, 
hay,  buildings,  etc.,  on  the  farming  lands,  were  so  completely 
licked  up  that  not  even  the  ashes  were  left  to  indicate  the 
places  "where  they  had  formerly  existed. 

It  is  manifestly  impossible  to  tell  exactly  the  quantities  of 
wood,  hay,  straw,  and  other  combustibles  burned  up  in  those 
fires.  Could  we  do  so  it  would  be  easy  to  calculate  the  precise 


190  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

number  of  pounds  of  carbon  set  free  in  the  process,  because  the 
science  of  chemistry  enables  us  to  say,  to  an  ounce,  ho\v  much  of 
each  of  the  elements  enters  into  the  composition  of  a  ton  of  any 
named  material.  Thus,  we  know  that  straw  and  dry  pine  wood 
each  contain  thirty-eight  per  cent,  of  carbon,  and  hay  nearly 
forty-one  (40.73)  per  cent.  But  we  can  make  a  sufficiently 
close  approximation  to  answer  our  present  purpose.  Taking 
the  minima  of  estimated  areas  of  country  as  a  basis,  the  writer 
has  made  a  careful  calculation  from  averages  of  the  quantities 
of  material  destroyed  on  those  areas,  and  has  made  even  a 
closer  approximation  for  the  city  of  Chicago,  with  the  following 
conclusions : 

As  a  chemical  result  of  this  immense  combustion  we  have 
not  less  than  3,000,000  tons  of  carbon  from  the  country,  and 
300,000  tons  from  the  city,  liberated  from  its  union  with  other 
elements,  and  carried  up  into  the  air  in  combination  with  nearly 
nine  million  tons  of  oxygen,  and  adding  twelve  million  tons 
to  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas  already  existing  in  the 
atmosphere.  Knowing,  as  we  do,  how  much  the  conditions  of 
animal  and  vegetable  existence  depend  upon  the  constitution  of 
the  aerial  envelope  of  our  globe,  it  becomes  important  to  ascer- 
tain the  extent  of  disturbance  from  the  normal  state,  produced 
by  this  phenomenon. 

The  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas  normal  to  the  atmosphere 
at  the  present  day  is  estimated  to  be  about  one  part  in  two 
thousand,  the  weight  will,  therefore,  be  a  little  less  than 
twenty  thousand  million  tons;  hence  its  proportion  in  the 
atmosphere  has  been  increased  by  about  one  part  in  sixteen 
hundred.  The  total  weight  of  atmospheric  oxygen  being  a  little 
over  nine  million  million  tons,  its  proportion  has  been  decreased 
to  the  extent  of  nearly  one  part  in  a  million.  Accepting  Liebig'a 


SCIENCE  OF   THE   FIRE.  191 

estimate  that  the  annual  consumption  of  oxygen  by  the  lower 
animals,  and  by  combustion,  is  double  the  quantity  consumed  by 
human  beings  in  breathing,  we  arrive  at  the  astounding  result 
that  the  oxygen  taken  up  by  the  North-western  fires  was  equal 
to  the  amount  required  to  supply  the  consumption  of  ten 
months  all  over  the  globe. 

So  far  as  we  are  able  to  judge,  the  vegetable  kingdom  was 
intended  by  the  Creator  to  act  as  an  exact  counterpoise  to  the 
animal  world,  the  former  returning  to  the  atmosphere  just  as 
much  oxygen  as  is  taken  up  by  the  latter.  This  does  not  seem 
to  be  the  case  with  carbon,  the  atmospheric  portion  of  which 
appears  to  have  slowly  decreased,  ever  since  the  carboniferous 
era.  At  that  time  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas  in  the 
atmosphere  was  probably  three  hundred  times  greater  than 
now,  holding  in  combination  one-half  of  the  oxygen,  and  form- 
ing fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  total  weight  of  the  air. 
(Brogniart  estimates  seven  or  eight  per  cent.)  The  amount  of 
free  carbonic  acid  gas  has  diminished,  approximately,  at  the  rate 
of  about  one  part  in  five  thousand,  each  century  since  then. 
In  this  respect,  therefore,  the  North-western  fires  have  restored 
the  atmospheric  conditions  of  three  hundred  years  ago. 

A  glance  at  the  characteristics  of  the  carboniferous  era  will 
enable  us  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  fact.  We  know 
that  if  we  replace  eight  per  cent,  of  the  oxygen  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  present  day  with  an  equal  volume  of  carbonic  acid 
gas,  the  mixture  is  alike  fatal  to  animal  life  and  to  combustion. 
Even  the  lower  orders  of  animal  life  could  only  exist  when  the 
atmosphere  had  been  partially  cleared  of  its  superabundant  car- 
bon. And  this  was  accomplished  by  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
which  then  flourished  with  a  luxuriance  of  which  we  can  form 
but  a  faint  conception,  though  the  immense  coal  deposits,  un- 


192  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

earthed  in  the  present  century,  tell  the  tale  of  primeval  vegeta- 
ble growth,  proportionate  in  its  exuberance  to  the  abundant 
presence  of  the  acid  that  formed  its  food.  Farther  along  the 
stream  of  time,  many  scores  of  thousands  of  years  nearer  to  the 
commencement  of  our  written  history,  when  these  gigantic  ferns 
had  done  their  work,  and  fixed  a  large  proportion  of  that  car- 
bon into  the  shape  in  which  it  is  now  utilized,  animal  existence 
became  possible;  and  the  same  conditions  that  had  previously 
ministered  to  immense  vegetable  forms,  now  made  possible  the 
elimination  of  a  mammoth  bony  frame-work  to  support  the 
muscular  tissues  of  animals,  giant-like  even  as  compared  with 
the  elephant  of  our  own  day.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
human  race  appeared  upon  the  earth  just  as  soon  as  human 
respiration  became  possible ;  neither  can  there  be  any  doubt  that 
the  "first  families"  lived  in  what  was  a  genuine  "Garden  of 
Eden  "  when  compared  with  the  more  sparse  vegetation  of  the 
present  epoch,  or  that  the  peculiar  facility  afforded  to  the  for- 
mation of  carbonate  of  lime  justified  the  assertion  of  Holy 
Writ  that  "  there  were  giants  in  those  days." 

The  abstraction  of  carbonic  acid  gas  from  the  atmosphere  is 
still  progressing,  though  not  so  rapidly  as  in  the  days  of  yore. 
This  appropriation  by  the  vitalized  forms  that  exist  upon  the 
land  surface  is  not  a  permanent  loss,  as  all  thus  taken  away 
from  the  general  fund  by  the  one  is  restored  by  the  compen- 
sating activities  of  another,  or  yielded  up  in  the  disintegration 
that  follows  the  death  of  organic  forms.  But  it  is  not  so  with 
life  in  the  sea.  The  immense  quantities  of  carbonic  acid  taken 
up  in  the  secretion  of  the  bony  coverings  of  shell-fish,  mostly 
sink  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  where  they  lie  forever  undis- 
turbed, except  when  upheaved  by  a  hypothalassic  volcano.  At 
the  immense  depths  to  which  they  sink,  there  is  no  wind,  no  cur- 


SCIENCE   OF  THE   FIRE.  193 

rout,  but  eternal  stillness  reigns,  and  not  even  the  play  of  organic 
affinities  finds  room  to  operate;  it  is  even  more  than  the  stillness 
of  death,  for  there  no  disintegration  follows  the  departure  of  the 
vital  principle  from  its  material  encasement.  The  lower  coral 
formations  are  subject  to  but  little  more  disturbance. 

These  fishy  processes  diminish  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid 
in  the  atmosphere  at  the  rate  of  about  four  million  tons  in  each 
century.  The  process  is,  however,  counteracted  to  some  extent 
by  the  tremendous  activity  of  manufacturing  fires  within  the 
past  few  years.  Indeed,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  last- 
named  process  will  yet  attain  to  such  a  magnitude  as  to  form 
an  effectual  counter-balance  to  the  secretory  powers  in  the 
restoration  of  carbonic  acid,  though  the  compensation  may  not 
be  effected  without  a  decrease  in  the  relative  proportion  of  free 
oxygen  in  the  atmosphere. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  North-western  conflagrations  have 
carried  us  back  to  nearly  the  same  atmospheric  conditions  as 
those  which  existed  three  centuries  ago,  and  this  brings  out 
another  important  thought.  We  see  that,  in  the  history  of  the 
past,  the  elimination  of  carbonic  acid  from  the  atmosphere  has 
been  accompanied  by  a  gradual  development  of  animal  life,  and 
an  equally  gradual  retrocession  of  vegetable  abundance.  While 
the  vegetable  kingdom  is  less  royal  in  its  proportions  than  in 
the  carboniferous  era,  the  immense  interval  between  then  and 
now  has  witnessed  the  dp-growth  of  all  the  animal  orders  above 
the  reptilian,  and  the  successive  development  of  the  higher 
order — man — from  a  state  of  savage  ignorance  to  one  of  high 
intellectual  culture  and  moral  accountability.  Knowing,  as  we 
do,  the  ultimate  physiological  connection  of  the  mental  with 
the  physical,  in  man's  nature,  and  the  almost  abject  dependence 
of  that  physical  nature  upon  its  surrounding  conditions — except 
17 


194  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

those  of  temperature — we  can  scarcely  resist  the  thought  that 
the  progress  of  the  race  toward  the  highest  limit  of  perfection 
attainable  by  humanity,  has  been  retarded  not  less  than  three 
centuries,  while  we  estimate  that  the  commercial  status  of  the 
city  of  Chicago  has  been  set  back  barely  four  years  by  the  Great 
Conflagration. 

Still  another,  and  even  more  startling,  idea  suggests  itself  in 
this  connection.  What  if  these  fires  should  be  but  one  of  a 
series  of  events,  designed  by  the  Great  Ruler  of  the  universe 
to  prevent  man  from  progressing  too  fast  or  too  far,  in  his  for- 
ward march  toward  the  perfection  of  knowledge,  and  of  that 
power  which  knowledge  confers  upon  its  possessors?  Our  study 
of  the  history  of  the  past  teaches  us  nothing  more  forcibly  than 
this  one  fact,  that  all  the  nations  whose  records  grace  promi- 
nently the  historical  page,  down  to  a  few  centuries  ago,  have 
reached  an  ultimus  beyond  which  they  could  not  pass,  and  have 
relapsed  from  that  point  into  insignificance  as  powers,  and 
barbarism  as  peoples.  Whether  it  were  the  red  hand  of  war, 
the  plague-spot,  a  change  in  the  beaten  track  of  commerce,  or 
the  up-growth  of  a  luxurious  indolence  that  gnawed  out  the 
vitals  of  the  nation,  some  cause  has  always  operated  to  break 
down  the  power,  and  even  the  intelligence  of  peoples.  -And 
the  records  of  history  show  that  this  grand  reversal  has  oc- 
curred at  least  twice  all  over  the  civilized  world;  while  the 
analogies  of  reasoning  point  to  the  same  conclusion  with  geo- 
logical deductions,  that  the  world,  as  a  whole,  is  not  exempt 
from  the  providential  visitation  which  sweeps  out  of  existence 
the  accumulated  learning,  as  well  as  the  treasures  of  the  past, 
and  leaves  the  race  to  begin  again  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  up 
which  it  had  toiled  so  painfully  before.  And  so  it  is  not  im- 
possible that,  while  the  occurrence  of  the  North-western  fires  has 


SCIENCE   OF   THE   FIRE.  195 

furnished  to  the  atmosphere  a  superabundance  of  carbonic  acid 
that  will  stimulate  the  vegetable  world  to  increased  activity  to 
occupy  the  place  of  that  destroyed,  the  animal  creation  will 
retrogress,  and  man  may  fall  back  into  the  mental  conditions  of 
the  Reformation  period,  and  reproduce  the  then  exceptional  in- 
lellectual  splendors  of  Bacon  and  Shakespeare. 

A  recollection  of  the  fact  that  large  quantities  of  carbonic 
acid  gas  were  generated  by  the  fire,  will  enable  us  to  understand 
how  many  individuals  dropped  down  dead  near  the  scenes  of 
the  conflagration,  and  were  afterward  found,  without  the  least 
trace  of  fire  upon  the  clothing  or  person.  We  have  already 
stated  that  eight  per  cent,  of  this  gas  in  the  atmosphere  is  fatal 
to  life.  It  would  be  generated  in  fully  this  proportion  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  flames,  and  would  thence  spread  slowly 
through  the  air  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth.  The 

O 

amount  of  carbonic  acid  gas  evolved  by  these  fires  would  suf- 
fice to  saturate  the  air  in  the  locality  to  the  height  of  nearly 
fifty  yards  from  the  surface. 

We  may  refer  briefly  to  the  more  local,  but  still  extensive 
effects  of  the  fire,  upon  the  meteorological  conditions  of  the 
country  devastated.  It  has  long  been  regarded  as  axiomatic 
that  the  destruction  of  timber  and  the  cultivation  of  soil,  di- 
minish the  annual  rain  supply,  and  also  produce  changes  in  tho 
temperature.  This  is  not  wholly  true.  The  plowing  of  the 
ground  undoubtedly  lessens  the  amount  of  water  that  drains 
into  the  rivers,  but  it  is  only  because  the  loosening  of  the  soil 
permits  a  greater  proportion  of  the  rain-fall  to  sink  in,  instead 
of  running  off  to  feed  the  water  courses.  There  is,  however, 
the  best  of  reason  to  believe  that  the  presence  or  absence  of 
trees  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  quantity  of  water  that  falls 
from  the  clouds,  and  so  much,  that  we  may  expect  the  deiiu- 


196  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

dation  of  so  much  timber  land  to  be  marked  by  a  diminution 
of  not  less  than  two  inches,  or  seven  per  cent.,  of  the  annual 
rain-fall  over  a  large  section  of  the  North-west,  while  the  yearly 
range  of  temperature  will  be  widened  fully  five  degrees,  the 
thermometer  registering  two  or  three  degrees  higher  in  summer, 
and  lower  in  winter,  than  heretofore. 

"We  have  already  referred  to  the  probability  that  these  fires 
were  part  of  a  section  in  the  providential  plan  of  earth  govern- 
ment. While  we  can  not  accept  the  doctrine  that  they  were 
sent  either  as  a  punishment  to  the  people  of  one  section,  or  as  a 
benefit  to  those  of  another,  we  must  recognize  them  as  links  in 
the  great  chain  of  events,  each  of  which  is  an  effect  of  some 
cause,  and  a  producing  cause  of  some  subsequent  effect.  And 
the  same  philosophy  teaches  us  that  no  effect  can  be  greater 
than  its  cause,  or  combined  causes.  Hence  it  is  absurdVo  look 
to  the  mere  upsetting  of  a  kerosene  lamp  in  the  city,  or  the 
emptying  of  burning  tobacco  from  a  laborer's  pipe  in  the  woods, 
as  the  efficient  causes  of  these  wide-spread  disasters.  These 
were  the  mere  incitements — like  the  knocking  of  a  chip  from 
the  shoulder  of  a  man  who  is  spoiling  for  a  fight. 

That  Chicago  was  "  favorably"  situated  and  constructed  for 
just  such  a  fire,  none  will  deny  who  remember  that  she  pre- 
sented a  four-mile  line  of  wooden  buildings  directly  along  the 
path  of  the  south-west  gale — so  common  in  that  region.  But 
the  forests,  per  se,  presented  no  more  unfavorable  conditions 
than  in  years  past.  Yet  they,  too,  were  licked  up  by  the  de- 
vouring flames. 

The  proximate  cause  of  the  conflagrations  was  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  country  was  unusually  dry.  One  and  a  half 
inches  of  rain  fell  in  Chicago  on  the  3d  of  July,  but  from  that 
date  to  the  time  of  the  fire,  on  the  9th  of  October,  only  two 


SCIEStJE  OF  THE  FIRE.  197 

and  a  half  inches  fell,  whereas  the  average  quantity  for  that 
time,  as  deduced  from  the  observations  of  former  years,  should 
have  been  eight  and  three-quarter  inches.  The  rain-fall  of  the 
summer  season  was  only  28 £  per  cent,  of  the  average  in  Chi- 
cago, while  in  the  lumber  districts  it  was  fully  twenty  per  cent, 
less  than  even  this  parsimonious  allowance  from  the  clouds, 
Meanwhile  a  hot  summer's  sun  had  dried  out  every  particle  of 
the  "  water  of  crystallization,"  as  the  chemists  will  perhaps  par- 
don us  for  calling  it,  and  left  the  whole  as  dry  as  so  much  tin- 
der. All  that  it  wanted  was  an  opportunity  to  burn,  and  that 
want  was  soon  supplied.  Thenceforward  the  fire  and  the  gale 
had  free  course,  "  with  none  to  let  or  hinder." 

But  this  was,  evidently,  only  a  proximate  cause.  There  was 
some  other  cause,  antecedent  to  this;  we  are  long  past  the  day 
when  storms  of  wind  or  rain  are  regarded  as  mere  accidents. 

In  the  spring  of  1870,  Mr.  Colbert  wrote  a  series  of  articles 
111  the  Chicago  Tribune,  and  then  in  the  Lakeside  Monthly,  de- 
veloping a  meteorological  theory  which  was  very  widely  copied 
and  commented  on.  He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  a 
large  part  of  the  sun's  surface  was  then  covered  with  black 
spots;  they  were  fully  as  numerous  in  1871  as  at  the  time  those 
articles  were  written.  The  theory  has  since  been  incorporated 
in  his  work  entitled  "Star  Studies."  The  following  were  the 
effects  which  he  stated  would  be  produced  by  those  spots: 

First — A  reduction  of  two  degrees  in  the  amount  of  heat 
supplied  to  the  earth  by  the  sun  (to  the  whole  globe  of  atmos- 
phere, water,  and  land)  corresponding  to  the  lessened  area  of 
calorifying  sun  surface.  Second — A  diminution  in  the  amount 
of  water  taken  up  by  the  sun,  from  ocean  and  land  (principally 
from  the  sea),  owing  to  the  diminished  evaporating  power  of  the 
sun;  and  a  decrease  of  fully  four  inches  in  the  annual  rain- 


198     CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  *COXFLAG RATION. 

fall.  Third — Greater  sensible  heat  at  many  points  on  the  land 
surface,  and  a  very  irregular  register  of  temperature;  because  a 
large  proportion  of  the  heat  supplied  by  the  sun  is  rendered 
latent  by  the  evaporation  of  the  water  that  falls  as  rain  upon 
the  earth's  surface.  Fourth — An  increase  in  the  amount  of 
chemical  activity,  both  in  combination  and  decomposition,  a 
greater  display  of  electric  and  magnetic  phenomena  (hence  un- 
usual irregularities  in  temperature),  a  more  rapid  growth  of 
vegetation  (but)  partial  crop  failures,  etc. 

That  every  one  of  the  deductions  then  published,  was  accu- 
rately verified,  is  now  matter  of  history.  Of  course  local  pecu- 
liarities of  position,  etc.,  caused  many  variations  from  the  aver- 
age; but,  as  applied  to  the  whole  globe,  the  theory  has  precisely 
agreed  with  the  facts.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  that 
the  very  strongly  marked  deviations  from  the  average  rain-fall, 
both  the  general  deficiency  and  the  excessive  floods  in  some  lo- 
calities, had  their  general  cause  in  the  fact  that  a  greater  por- 
tion of  the  sun's  disc  was  obscured  by  black  spots  during  1870 
and  a  part  of  1871,  than  at  any  other  time  for  a  hundred  years 
preceding. 

The  black  patches  on  the  face  of  the  God  of  Day,  too  re- 
mote to  be  visible  without  the  aid  of  a  telescope,  though  some- 
times covering  several  millions  of  square  miles  of  his  surface, 
have  for  some  years  been  recognized  by  meteorologists  as  poten- 
tial in  the  production  of  magnetic  storms  and  auroral  displays 
on  the  earth.  It  is  but  a  step  further  in  the  same  reasoning 
process  to  arrive  at  a  point  where  we  can  look  upon  these  as 
causes  of  greater  change  in  the  meteorological  conditions  of 
our  earth,  and  as  influencing  materially  those  circumstances  on 
which  its  inhabitants  depend  for  the  conservation  of  the  order 
of  things  under  which  they  live  and  move. 


I 

r 


THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


BLACKENED  and  bleeding,  helpless,  panting,  prone 
On  the  charred  fragments  of  her  shattered  throne 
Lies  she  who  stood  but  yesterday  alone. 

Queen  of  the  West!  by  some  enchanter  taught 

To  lift  the  glory  of  Aladdin's  court, 

Then  lose  the  spell  that  all  that  wonder  wrought. 

Like  her  own  prairies  by  some  chance  seed  sown, 
Like  her  own  prairies  in  one  brief  day  grown, 
Like  her  own  prairies  in  one  fierce  night  mown. 

She  lifts  her  voice,  and  in  her  pleading  call 
We  hear  the  cry  of  Macedon  to  Paul — 
The  cry  for  help  that  makes  her  kin  to  all. 

But  haply  with  wan  fingers  may  she  feel 
The  silver  cup  hid  in  the  proffered  meal — 
The  gifts  her  kinship  and  our  loves  reveal. 

Bret  Harte. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

The  fire  aa  a  hero — It  marches  through  four  miles  of  solid  buildings — It 
takes  them  all — A  plain  account  of  the  operations  of  the  "  fiend." 

IT  was  on  the  night  of  the  8th  of  October,  1871,  and  the 
forenoon  following,  that  Chicago  was  wiped  out.  It  is  re- 
lated, and  piously  believed  by  most  readers  of  ancient  history, 
that  old  Rome  was  once  saved  by  the  cackling  of  a  goose. 
There  is  at  least  equal  reason  to  believe  that  Chicago,  which 
is  no  less  noted,  as  a  modern  city,  than  Rome  was  as  the  olden 
capital  of  the  world,  was  destroyed  by  the  kicking  of  a  cow. 
Leaving  the  details  of  the  ancient  example  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  it  may  be  explained  that  the  great  fire  of  the  9th 
October  is  attributed  by  the  Fire  Department  of  the  city  to 
the  upsetting  of  a  kerosene-lamp  in  a  barn.  If  the  woman 
who  was  milking  the  cow  had  not  been  late  with  her  milking, 
the  lamp  would  not  have  been  needed.  If  she  had  plied  the 
dugs  of  the  animal  with  proper  skill,  the  lamp  would  not  have 
been  kicked  at  all.  There  is  no  use  foisting  the  blame  upon 
the  cow,  for  cows  will  kick  when  irritated,  else  they  would  not 
be  true  to  their  nature;  nor  on  the  oil  in  the  lamp,  for  whatever 
hue  and  cry  may  be  raised  against  coal-oil  as  an  illuminating 

agency,  it  is  unquestionably  the  material  which  nature  has  iu- 

(201) 


202  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

tended  for  such  use,  and  one  which  only  requires  intelligent  use 
to  be  as  harmless  as  it  is  handy.  The  blame  of  setting  the  fire 
rests  on  the  woman  who  milked,  or  else  upon  the  lazy  man  who 
allowed  her  to  milk.  The  name  of  this  female  we  shall  not 
hand  down  to  posterity  in  these  pages;  for  we  have  the  familiar 
words  of  the  poet  to  remind  us  that 

"  The  ambitious  youth  who  fired  the  Ephesian  dome, 
Outlives  in  fame  the  pious  fool  that  reared  it; " 

And  we  have  no  desire  to  immortalize  the  author  of  the  ruin  of 
Chicago  at  the  expense  of  the  noble  and  indefatigable  pioneers 
whose  work  in  the  building  of  Chicago  has  been  recounted  in 
the  preceding  pages. 

So  much  for  the  origin  of  the  fire  of  October.  The  causes 
which  helped  it  to  spread  until  it  had  devastated  the  city  and 
laid  three-fourths  of  its  wealth  in  ashes,  will  be  inquired  into 
in  a  subsequent  chapter.  We  shall  leave  the  Fire  Department 
out  of  the  question  at  present, -just  as  it  seems  to  have  been  left 
out  of  the  question  by  the  destroying  element  on  the  fatal  night 
of  the  8th.  It  is  necessary,  however,  for  the  reader  to  under- 
stand the  following  facts: 

The  city'of  Chicago  is  divided,  by  the  river  and  its  branches, 
as  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show,  into  three  principal  divisions — 
North,  South,  and  West.  The  North  and  South  Branches  unite 
at  a  point  not  quite  a  mile  from  the  lake-shore  (though  the 
South  Branch  has  previously  approached  it  to  within  half  a 
mile),  and  the  united  stream  (if  it  may  be  called  a  stream)  forms 
the  boundary  between  the  North  and  South  Divisions.  The 
West  Division  embraces  all  to  the  west  of  either  branch.  This 
division  consists  mainly  of  residences,  with  retail  stores  filling 
several  long  streets,  and,  lying  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  a 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE   CITY.  203 

goodly  number  of  factories,  grain-elevators,  railroad  buildings, 
and  a  few  merchandise  warehouses.  The  " business  quarter" 
proper,  containing  practically  all  the  wholesale  mercantile  es- 
tablishments, fine  retail  stores,  public  buildings  and  hotels, 
the  newspaper  offices,  the  two  grand  union  railroad  depots,  and 
other  institutions  which  usually  occupy  the  central  and  select 
portion  of  the  town,  lies  in  the  South  Division,  north  of  Har- 
rison Street.  Perhaps  we  can  not  illustrate  the  character  of 
this  quarter  of  the  city  more  plainly  than  by  stating  that  the 
valuation  of  the  thirty-one  miles  of  street  front,  excluding  that 
of  all  buildings  and  other  improvements,  was  not,  on  the  morn- 
ing before  the  fire,  less  than  $1,000  per  foot  on  the  average,  or 
$163,680,000;  equal  to  the  price  of  about  two  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  forty-two  townships  of  Government  land  in  a  new 
railroad  town.  To  the  south  of  this  precious  tract  lie  the  resi- 
dences of  the  wealthy  and  of  the  poor,  divided  by  State  Street, 
a  thoroughfare  of  shops.  The  North  Division  is  (or  rather 
was)  occupied,  near  the  river  and  along  Clark  Street,  by  stores 
and  factories,  the  rest  mainly  by  residences.  The  homes  of  the 
humble  lie  mostly  west  of  Lasalle  Street;  though  toward  the 
north,  the  residences  of  the  more  luxurious  classes,  which  had 
formerly  been  confined  to  select  tracts  in  the  south-east  quarter- 
section  of  this  Division — the  "  old  Chicago,"  substantial  and  ele- 
gant, and  shaded  with  grand  elms — had  been  of  late  seriously 
crowding  the  frugal  Germans  and  improvident  Irish  out  of 
their  former  haunts,  and  studding  the  country  about  Lincoln 
Park  with  mansions  of  the  most  elegant  design  and  finish. 

It  should  also  be  understood  that  a  severe  drought — the  se- 
verest in  many  seasons — was  prevalent  at  the  time  of  the  fire, 
not  only  at  and  about  Chicago,  but  through  the  whole  North- 
west; and  that,  in  addition  to  this,  a  gale  of  unusual  violence 


204  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

was  blowing  steadily  for  several  days  and  nights  from  the 
south-west.  Had  the  gale  been  from  the  south-east  instead, 
then  the  "West  Division  would  have  been  burned.  Twice  as 
many  buildings  would  have  been  consumed  and  twice  as  many 
people  rendered  homeless;  but  the  damage  to  Chicago  would 
have  been  much  less  severe,  because  it  would  be  much  better 
for  every  clerk,  artisan,  and  tradesman  of  Chicago  to  lose  his 
home  than  to  lose  his  business,  the  prop  which  sustains  that 
home.  As  Shakespeare  says  truly,  though  he  puts  the  words 
in  the  mouth  of  the  despicable  Shylock: 

"You  take  my  house  when  you  do  take  the  prop 
That  doth  sustain  my  house ;  you  take  my  life 
When  you  do  take  the  means  whereby  I  live." 

What  were  the  circumstances  of  this  horrible  event  which 
eclipsed  all  similar  catastrophes  that  the  world  knew;  which 
burnt  out  a  week  from  the  teeming  annals  of  the  age? 

There  had  been,  on  the  previous  evening  (that  of  Saturday, 
the  7th  October),  an  extensive  conflagration,  which  the  journals 
had  recorded  in  many  columns,  devoting  to  it  their  most  stun- 
ning head-lines,  their  most  ponderous  superlatives,  and  their 
most  graphic  powers  of  description.  The  location  of  this  fire 
was  in  the  West  Division,  between  Clinton  Street  and  the  river, 
and  running  north  from  Van  Buren  Street,  where  it  naught,  to 
Adams  Street,  where,  fortunately,  it  was  checked,  rather  by  the 
lack  of  combustible  material  than  by  any  ability  of  the  Fire 
Department  to  obtain  the  mastery  over  such  powerful  allies  as 
the  gale,  the  drought,  and  the  fire,  aided  by  the  almost  powder- 
like  material  which  the  devouring  element  found  in  the  planing- 
mills,  lumber-piles,  and  pine  buildings  of  that  region.  The  last 
structure  attacked  by  the  fire  of  Saturday  night  was  the  via- 


BEGINNING   OF   THE   FIRE.  205 

duct  over  the  railroads  at  Adams  Street,  which,  though  of  iron, 
contained  sufficient  wood-work  to  furnish  food  for  the  hungry 
flames.  The  damage  by  this  fire  was  nearly  a  million  dollars; 
and  it  formed  undoubtedly  the  grandest  spectacle  thus  far  wit- 
nessed in  Chicago,  though  not  the  most  destructive  conflagra- 
tion, so  far  as  values  went.  In  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
flames  progressed,  consuming  in  their  course  one  of  the  steam 
fire-engines  which  had  been  sent  against  them,  and  which  had 
seemed  but  little  more  than  boys' tiny  squirt-guns  in  their  ef- 
fects upon  the  raging  element,  the  people  of  Chicago  saw,  with 
a  shudder,  to  what  terrible  danger  they  were  subjected  by  the 
condition  of  the  elements  and  the  architectural  faults  of  the 
city.  But  none  of  them  dreamed — not  even  the  most  appre- 
hensive among  them — that  another  fire  was  to  sweep  over  the 
city,  even  before  the  underwriters  had  begun  to  compute  the 
damages  by  this,  compared  with  which  the  conflagration  of  Sat- 
urday night  should  be  but  as  the  flicker  of  a  farthing  candle. 

Yet  so  it  was.  A  little  while  after  nine  o'clock  on  Sunday 
evening,  the  lamp  was  upset  which  was  to  kindle  the  funeral 
pyre  of  Chicago's  pristine  splendor.  The  little  stable,  with  its 
contents  of  hay,  was  soon  ablaze.  By  the  time  the  alarm  could 
be  sounded,  at  the  box  several  blocks  away,  two  or  three  other 
little  buildings — tinder-boxes — to  the  leeward  had  been  ignited, 
and  within  five  minutes  the  poor  purlieu  in  the  vicinity  of  De 
Koven  and  Jefferson  Streets  was  blazing  like  a  huge  bonfire. 

The  spread  of  the  fire,  or,  rather,  the  flight  which  it  took 
along  with  the  south-west  gale,  was  very  rapid.  We  suppose  the 
Fire  Department  was  on  the  ground,  partly  because  it  usually 
turns  out  at  fires,  and  partly  because  one  or  two  of  its  splendid 
engines  were  found  burned  up  among  the  ruins  the  next  day; 
but  it  might  as  well  have  been  in  Kamtschatka,  for  any  thing 


206  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

which  it  was  able  to  do  toward  arresting  the  progress  of  the 
flames.  They  marched  on  until  they  had  devoured  the  thou- 
sand or  more  shanties,  houses,  planing-mills,  in  their  path  on 
the  West  Division.  They  heeded  not  the  Marshal  and  his  corps 
any  more  than  the  bull  heeds  the  fly  upon  his  horn.  They 
heeded  not  even  the  broad  river,  but  leaped  it  easily,  after 
marching  along  northward  until  all  between  Jefferson  Street 
and  the  river  had  been  destroyed,  up  to  the  edge  of  the  burned 
district  of  Saturday  night. 

The  first  vault  across  the  river  was  made  at  midnight  from 
Van  Buren  Street,  lighting  in  a  building  of  the  South  Division 
gas-works,  on  Adams  Street.  This  germ  of  the  main  fire  was 
not  suppressed,  and  from  that  moment  the  doom  of  the  com- 
mercial quarter  was  sealed,  though  no  man  could  have  foretold 
that  the  raging  element  would  make  such  complete  havoc  of  the 
proudest  and  strongest  structures  of  that  quarter.  The  axis  of 
the  column,  as  it  had  progressed  from  the  starting-point  in  the 
south-western  purlieus,  had  varied  hardly  a  point  from  due 
north-east.  Having  gained  a  foothold  upon  the  South  Division, 
its  march  naturally  lay  through  two  or  three  blocks  of  pine 
rookeries,  known  as  "  Conley's  Patch,"  and  so  on  for  a  consid- 
erable space  through  the  abodes  of  squalor  and  vice.  Through 
these  it  set  out  at  double-quick,  the  main  column  being  flanked 
by  another  on  each  side,  and  nearly  an  hour  to  the  rear.  That 
at  the  right  was  generated  by  a  separate  brand  from  the  west- 
ern burning;  that  at  the  left  was  probably  created  by  some  of 
the  eddies  which  were  by  this  time  whirling  through  the  streets 
toward  the  flame  below  and  from  it  above.  The  rookeries  were 
quickly  disposed  of.  They  made  a  magnificent  kindling  mate- 
rial, and  had  never  distinguished  themselves  half  so  well  as 
habitations  of  man  as  they  did  as  fuel  for  the  fiend.  Beyond 


COURSE   OF  THE    FIRE.  207 

them,  however,  along  Lasalle  Street,  were  a  splendid  double- 
row  of  "  fire-proof "  mercantile  buildings,  the  superior  of  which 
did  not  exist  in  the  land.  Would  these  succumb  to  the  shower 
of  brands  and  the  triple-heated  furnace  which  had  been  thrown 
about  them? 

Alas,  yes!  One  after  another,  they  went  as  the  column  ad- 
vanced. And  the  column  was  spreading  fearfully — debauching 
to  right  and  left,  according  as  opportunities  of  conquest  offered 
themselves.  It  was  not  long  after  one  o'clock  before  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  was  attacked,  and  fell  a  prey  to  the  on- 
advancing  force.  Soon  the  Court-house  was  seized  upon;  but 
it  did  not  surrender  until  near  three  o'clock,  when  the  great 
bell  went  down,  down,  and  pealed  a  farewell,  dying  groan  as  it 
went.  The  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  in  the  basement- story 
were  released  to  save  their  lives.  They  evinced  their  gratitude 
by  pillaging  a  jewelry-store  near  by. 

About  the  time  the  Court-house  was. attacked,  the  telegraph 
operators  in  the  Merchants'  Insurance  building,  opposite,  in 
Lasalle  Street,  saw  the  propriety  of  falling  back  upon  safer 
ground.  The  reporter  of  the  Associated  Press  broke  off  in 
the  middle  of  a  word  his  account  of  the  conflagration,  and 
betook  himself,  in  General  Sheridan's  carriage,  to  a  suburban 
station. 

From  the  Court-house  the  course  of  the  main  column  seemed 
to  tend  eastward,  and  Hooley's  Opera-house,  the  Times  building, 
Crosby's  magnificent  Opera-house  (to  be  re-opened  that  very 
night),  fell  rapidly  before  it.  Pursuing  its  way  more  slowly 
onward,  the  fiery  invader  laid  waste  some  buildings  to  the  north- 
east, and,  preparatory  to  attacking  the  magnificent  wholesale 
stores  at  the  foot  of  Randolph  Street  and  the  great  Union  Depot, 
joined  forces  wfth  the  other  branch  of  the  main  column,  which 


208  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

had  lingered  to  demolish  the  Sherman  House — a  grand  seven- 
story  edifice  of  marble — the  Tremont  House,  and  the  other  fine 
buildings  lying  between  Randolph  and  Lake  Streets. 

The  left  column  had,  meantime,  diverged  to  pass  down  La- 
salle  Street  and  attack  all  buildings  lying  to  the  west  of  that 
noble  avenue — the  Oriental  and  Mercantile  buildings,  the  Union 
Bank,  the  Merchants'  Insurance  building,  where  were  General 
Sheridan's  headquarters  and  the  offices  of  .the  Western  Union 
Telegraph,  and  in  fact  an  unbroken  row  of  the  stone  palaces 
of  trade,  which  had  already  made  Lasalle  Street  a  monument 
of  Chicago's  business  architecture,  to  which  her  citizens  pointed 
with  glowing  pride,  and  of  which  admiring  visitors  wrote  and 
published  warm  panegyrics  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  The 
column  of  the  left  did  its  mission  but  too  well,  however,  and 
by  daylight  scarcely  a  stone  was  left  upon  another  in  all  that 
stately  thoroughfare.  But  one  building  was  left  standing  in 
this  division  of  the  city — a  large  brick  structure,  with  iron 
shutters,  known  as  Land's  Block.  This  was  saved  by  its  iso- 
lated location,  being  on  the  shore  of  the  river,  and  separated 
by  an  exceptionally  wide  street  from  the  seething  furnace  which 
consumed  all  else  in  its  vicinity. 

The  right  column  started  from  a  point  near  the  intersection 
of  Van  Buren  Street  and  the  river,  where  some  wooden  build- 
ings were  ignited  by  brands  from  the  west  side,  in  despite  of 
the  efforts  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  quarter  to  save  their  homes 
by  drenching  their  premises  with  water  from  their  hydrants; 
and,  we  need  hardly  add,  in  despite  of  the  desultory  though 
desperate  efforts  of 'the  Fire  Department.  The  right  column 
had  also  the  advantage  of  a  large  area  of  wooden  buildings  on 
which  to  ration  and  arm  itself  for  its  march  of  destruction. 
Thus  fed  and  equipped,  it  swept  down  upom  the  remaining 


POST-OFFICE  AND   HOTELS.  209 

portion  of  the  best-built  section  of  the  town.  It  gutted  the 
Michigan  Southern  Depot  and  the  grand  Pacific  Hotel,  and 
the  tornado  soon  made  them  shapeless  ruins.  It  spared  not 
Ihe  unfinished  building  of  the  Lakeside  Publishing  Company, 
\rhich  had  already  put  on  a  very  sightly  front,  and  which  had 
icarcely  any  thing  to  burn  but  brick  and  stone.  It  licked  up 
the  fine  new  buildings  on  Dearborn  Street,  near  the  Post-office. 
Would  it  also  master  that  solid  edifice  itself,  isolated  and  fire- 
proof as  it  was? 

The  question  was  no  sooner  asked  than  the  Post-office  was 
seized  upon  and  gutted  like  the  rest,  some  two  millions  of 
treasure  being  destroyed  in  its  vaults,  which  proved  to  have 
been  shammily  constructed.  It  swept  down  upon  the  new 
Bigelow  House,  a  massive  and  elegant  hotel  which  had  never 
yet  been  occupied,  and  demolished  that,  together  with  the 
Honore  Block,  a  magnificent  new  building,  with  massive  walls 
adorned  with  hundreds  of  stately  colonnades  of  marble.  It 
reached  out  to  the  left  and  took  McVicker's  new  theater  in  its 
grasp  for  a  moment,  with  the  usual  fatal  result.  It  assaulted 
the  noble  Tribune  building,  which  the  people  had  been  declar- 
ing, even  up  to  that  terrible  hour,  would  withstand  all  attacks, 
being  furnished  with  all  known  safeguards  against  destruction 
by  fire;  but  the  enemy  was  wily  as  well  as  strong.  It  sur- 
rounded the  fated  structure,  and  ruined  it  too.  It  threw  a  red- 
hot  brick  wall  upon  the  building's  weaker  side,  a  shower  of 
brands  upon  the  roof,  a  subterranean  fire  under  the  sidewalk 
and  into  the  basement,  and  an  atmosphere  of  furnace-heat  all 
around.  It  conquered  and  destroyed  the  Tribune  building  at 
half-past  seven  in  the  evening.  It  marched  on  and  laid  waste 
B<  ok-sellers'  Row,  the  finest  row  of  bookstores  in  the  world. 
It  fell  upon  Potter  Palmer's  store  of  Massachusetts  marble,  for 
18 


210  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

which  Field,  Leiter  &  Co.,  dry  goods  importers,  were  paying 
the  owner  $52,000  a  year  rent.  This  splendid  building,  with 
such  of  its  contents  as  had  not  been  removed  in  wagons,  went 
like  all  the  rest.  It  deployed  to  the  right,  in  spite  of  its  ally, 
the  wind,  and  destroyed  the  splendid  churches  and  residences 
which  adorn  the  lower  or  town  end  of  Wabash  and  Michigan 
Avenues.  Among  these  were  the  First  and  Second  Presbyterian 
Churches,  Trinity  (Episcopal)  Church,  and  the  palatial  row  of 
residences  known  as  "Terrace  Row,"  in  which  dwelt,  among 
others,  Governor  Bross,  of  the  Tribune,  Jonathan  Y.  Scammon 
the  banker  and  capitalist,  and  S.  C.  Griggs,  the  book-seller 
Finally  its  course  southward  was  stayed  at  Congress  Street  by 
the  blowing  up  of  a  building.  The  southern  line  of  the  fire 
•was  for  the  most  part,  however,  along  Harrison  Street,  which  is 
one  square  further  to  the  south. 

This  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  operations  of  the  fire  in  the 
West  and  South  Divisions.  It  effected  a  foothold  in  the  North 
Division  as  early  as  half-past  three  in  the  morning;  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  almost  the  first  building  to  be  attacked  on  the 
north  side  of  the  river  was  the  engine-house  of  the  Water- 
works; as  if  the  terrible  marauder  had,  with  deadly  strategy, 
thrown  out  a  swifter  brand  than  all  others  to  cut  off  the  only 
reliance  of  his  victims,  the  water-supply.  The  Water- works 
are  nearly  a  mile  from  the  point  where  the  burning  brands 
must  have  crossed  the  river!  The  denizens  of  the  North  Di- 
vision were  standing  in  their  doors  and  gazing  at  the  blazing 
splendor  of  the  Court-house  dome,  when  they  discovered  to  their 
horror  that  the  fire  was  already  raging  behind  them,  and  that 
the  Water-works  had  gone.  A  general  stampede  to  the  sands 
of  the  lake-shore,  or  to  the  prairies  west  of  the  city,  was  the 
result. 


THE   NORTH   DIVISION.  211 

Besides  its  foothold  at  the  "Water-works,  from  -which  the  fire 
spread  rapidly  in  every  direction,  it  soon  made  a  landing  in  two 
of  the  elevators  near  the  river,  and  organized  an  advance  which 
consumed  every  thing  left  by  the  scores  of  separate  irruptions 
which  the  flames  were  constantly  making  in  unexpected  places. 
This  was  the  system  by  which  the  North  Division  was  wiped 
out:  blazing  brands  and  scorching  heat  sent  ahead  to  kindle 
many  scattering  fires,  and  the  grand  general  conflagration  fol- 
lowing up  and  finishing  up.  Within  the  limits  marked  upon 
the  map  nothing  was  spared;  not  any  of  the  elegant  residences 
of  the  patricians — not  even  those  isolated  by  acres  of  pleasure- 
grounds;  not  even  the  "fire-proof"  Historical  Hall,  with  its 
thousand  precious  relics;  not  even  the  stone  churches  of  Robert 
Collyer  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Chamberlain,  protected  by  a  park  in 
front ;  not  even  the  cemetery  to  the  north,  whither  many  people 
removed  a  few  of  their  most  necessary  effects,  only  to  see  them 
consumed  before  their  eyes;  not  even  Lincoln  Park,  whose  scat- 
tering oaks  were  burned  to  dismal  pollards  by  the  all-consuming 
flames;  nothing  but  one  lone  house,  the  residence  of  Mahlou 
Ogden,  which  now  stands  as  the  sole  survivor  of  the  scourged 
district.  The  loss  of  life  and  the  sufferings  of  those  who  man- 
aged to  escape  with  life  were  severest  in  this  quarter  of  the  city. 
They  will  be  considered  in  a  separate  chapter,  the  human  ele- 
ment of  the  tragedy  having  been  purposely  omitted  from  this 
as  far  as  practicable.  Only  at  the  lake  and  the  northern  limits 
of  the  city  was  the  conflagration  stayed — or,  rather,  spent — for 
lack  of  any  thing  to  consume. 

The  sensations  conveyed  to  the  spectator  of  this  unparalleled 
event,  either  through  the  eye,  the  ear,  or  other  senses  or  sympa- 
thies, can  not  be  adequately  described,  and  any  attempt  to  do  it 
but  shows  the  poverty  of  language.  "We  have  merely  noted  the 


212  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

general  course  of  the  devouring  element,  and  shall  add,  in  sev- 
eral subsequent  chapters,  some  personal  experiences,  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  many  thousand  thrilling  incidents  accompanying  the 
catastrophe.  As  a  spectacle,  it  was  beyond  doubt  the  grandest 
us  well  as  most  appalling  ever  offered  to  mortal  eyes.  From 
any  elevated  standpoint,  the  appearance  was  that  of  a  vast  ocean 
of  flame,  sweeping  in  mile-long  billows  and  breakers  over  the 
doomed  city.  A  square  of  substantial  buildings  would  be  sub- 
merged by  it  like  a  child's  tiny  heap  of  sand  on  the  beach  of  a 
lake;  and  when  the  flood  receded,  there  was  no  more  left  of  the 
stately  block  than  of  the  tiny  sand-heap.  Anon  the  devouring 
clement  would  present  itself  as  if  in  a  personal  form,  and  seize 
upon  a  masterpiece  of  architecture  as  if  it  would  say  to  the 
pale  faces  around  and  below :  "  See,  now !  Here  is  a  pile  of 
massive  marble.  You  built  it  with  great  pains,  and  thought 
you  had  something  substantial.  Mark,  now,  what  a  bubble  it 
is.  Piff!"  And  the  proud  dome  collapsed,  and  stately  wall, 
and  ornate  capital, 

" all,  mingling,  fell ! " 

nor  left  a  vestige  of  their  former  splendor. 

Added  to  the  spectacular  elements  of  the  conflagration — the 
intense  and  lurid  light,  the  sea  of  red  and  black,  and  the  spires 
and  pyramids  of  flame  shooting  into  the  heavens — was  its  con- 
stant and  terrible  roar,  drowning  even  the  voices  of  the  shriek- 
iug  multitude.  And  ever  and  anon — for  awhile  as  often  as 
every  half-minute — resounded  far  and  wide  the  rapid  detona- 
tions of  explosions,  or  of  falling  walls.  The  infirm  crust  of 
earth  on  which  the  city  stands  was  shaken  by  each  shock.  At 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  great  gasometer  exploded  with 
a  thundering  sound.  About  the  same  hour  the  great  bell  of 


GRANDEUR   OF   THE   SCENE.  213 

the  Court-house  fell.  In  short,  all  sights  and  sounds  which 
terrify  the  weak  and  unnerve  the  strong  abounded.-  But  they 
were  only  the  accompaniment  which  the  orchestra  of  Nature  was 
furnishing  to  the  terrible  tragedy  then  being  enacted,  in  which 
the  fate  of  every  person  of  that  surging  throng  was  vitally  in- 
volved. 


CHAPTER    II. 

A     NIGHT    OF    TERROR. 

Fleeing  for  life— ^A  city  full  of  sleepers  surprised  and  stampeded — Chased 
into  the  lake — The  merciless  elements — Ruffianism  and  rapine — A 
thousand  dollars  to  a  carter — Escape  to  the  prairies. 

TN  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  recorded  the  doings  of  the 
-*-  fire  in  an  abstract  way,  leaving  almost  entirely  out  of  the 
question  the  terrible  concomitants  of  the  conflagration  and  its 
results  upon  the  human  interests  comprised  in  a  vast  city  full 
of  people,  nearly  half  of  whom  (fully  a  hundred  thousand) 
were  driven  by  the  raging  element  from  their  homes  into  the 
streets — from  the  streets  into  the  lake  or  the  open  prairie;  and 
all  of  whom  were  most  deeply  involved,  either  in  regard  to  life, 
kindred,  or  property,  in  the  direful  event.  This  was  a  matter 
of  sheer  necessity;  for  we  could  not  tell  all  at  once;  and  it  is 
clear  that  the  priority  of  mention  in  describing  a  conflict  like 
this  belongs  to  the  victorious  party.  In  this  case  it  was  the 
fire  which  came  off  victor  over  all  the  devices  of  human  inge- 
nuity. The  dread  fiery  Principle,  which  people  might  have 
called  the  Fire  Fiend,  had  not  the  flippant  use  of  that  epithet 
on  othei  occasions  left  it  so  lamentably  inadequate  to  this — 
this  elemental  monster  was  the  hero  of  the  night,  and  all  else 
was  naught.  Before  his  scorching,  withering  breath  the  proud 
city's  populace  scattered  and  squirmed  like  so  many  little  ants 
(214) 


A   NIGHT   OF   TERROR.  215 

disturbed  in  their  hill  by  the  mower's  scythe.  And  yet  among 
those  powerless  victims  and  terrified  fugitives  were  senators, 
judges,  generals,  princes  of  commerce  and  queens  of  society  and 
of  letters — the  wealthy  and  the  great — very  wealthy  and  truly 
great,  except  when  scourged  by  such  a  manifestation  of  divine 
wrath — all  brought  low  with  the  lowly  themselves — all  chas- 
tened and  humbled  together.  And  many  were  sacrificed ;  nor 
was  the  destroyer  any  respecter  of  persons  in  the  choice  of  his 
victims.  The  rich  banker  perished  in  saving  his  gold  or  his 
accounts,  as  well  as  the  poor  laborer  for  lack  of  cunning,  or 
his  childing  wife  for  lack  of  care. 

The  fire  broke  out  in  the  densely-populated  section  of  the  city 
somewhat  after  midnight,  as  we  have  seen.  The  people  of  the 
quarter  through  which  it  first  passed  were  of  a  class  the  most 
likely  to  be  careless  in  the  extreme.  In  that  quarter  were  the 
low  brothels  of  Griswold,  Quincy,  Jackson,  and  Wells  Streets, 
as  well  as  the  more  showy  haunts  of  vice  on  more  respectable 
streets,  and  the  rooms  of  kept  mistresses  in  the  upper  stories 
of  business  blocks.  The  rest  of  the  population  living  in  this 
quarter  were  people  used  to  excitements  and  alarms,  and  not 
likely  to  be  disturbed,  especially  on  a  Sunday  night,  by  any 
fidgeting  about  fire.  Among  such  the  panic,  when  at  length 
aroused  by  the  close  presence  of  danger,  would  naturally  be  the 
most  intense.  Awakened  from  their  slumbers,  or  aroused  from 
their  orgies  by  the  near  approach  of  the  flames,  which  traveled 
almost  like  lightning  from  house  to  house  and  from  street  to 
street,  the  denizens  of  that  inflammable  quarter  had  barely  time 
to  escape — half-clad,  for  the  most  part — and  rush,  ]>ell-rnell, 
through  the  streets — whither,  they  knew  not.  Nearly  every 
body  brought  along  something — a  few  articles  of  clothing — a 
pet  bird  or  animal — perhaps  a  trunk — whatever  their  various 


216  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

impulses  prompted  them  to  seize  upon  in  their  hasty  flight.  A 
few  were  fortunate  enough  to  secure  a  wagon  or  a  carriage,  at 
the  fabulous  prices  charged  for  such  accommodations.  These 
filled  and  clogged  the  streets,  and  dashed  down  those  on  foot — 
for  the  sidewalks  would  by  no  means  hold  the  crowds  that 
surged,  swearing,  shouting,  jostling,  this  way  and  that.  The 
sidewalks,  too,  were  occupied  with  men  saving  (that  is,  trying 
to  save)  and  pillaging  from  the  shops  along  the  way.  Stores 
were  thrown  open,  and  the  people  were  told  to  help  themselves 
to  what  they  liked — it  must  all  go.  Saloons,  too,  were  opened, 
and  bottles  and  taps  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  among  the 
crowd.  Many  rough,  transient  fellows,  who  had  nothing  to 
save,  or  who  came  by  thousands  from  distant  parts  of  the  city, 
attracted  by  curiosity  or  worse  motives,  drank  deep  potations 
and  became  wild  and  dangerous.  Among  these,  to  make  the 
scene  more  revolting,  were  many  boys. 

The  scene  at  this  point  of  the  conflagration's  progress  is  thus 
graphically  and  for  the  most  part  correctly  described  by  a  local 
writer : 

"The  people  were  mad.  Despite  the  police — indeed  the  po- 
lice were  powerless — they  crowded  upon  frail  coigns  of  vantage, 
as  fences  and  high  sidewalks  propped  on  rotten  piles,  which  fell 
beneath  their  weight,  and  hurled  them,  bruised  and  bleeding, 
into  the  dust.  They  stumbled  over  broken  furniture  and  fell, 
and  were  trampled  under  foot.  Seized  with  wild  and  causeless 
panics,  they  surged  together  backward  and  forward  in  the  nar- 
row streets,  cursing,  threatening,  imploring,  fighting  to  get  free. 
Liquor  flowed  like  water,  for  the  saloons  were  broken  open  and 
despoiled,  and  men  on  all  sides  were  to  be  seen  frenzied  with 
drink.  Fourth  Avenue  and  Griswold  Street  had  emptied  their 
denizens  into  the  throng.  Ill-omened  and  obscene  birds  of 


A   NIGHT   OF  TERROR.  217 

night  were  they.  Villainous,  haggard  with  debauch  and  pinched 
with  misery,  flitting  through  the  crowd,  collarless,  ragged,  dirty, 
unkempt,  were  negroes  with  stolid  faces  and  white  men  who 
fatten  on  the  wages  of  shame;  gliding  through  the  mass  like  vul- 
tures in  search  of  prey.  They  smashed  windows,  reckless  of 
the  severe  wounds  inflicted  on  their  naked  hands,  and  with 
bloody  fingers  rifled  impartially,  till,  shelf,  and  cellar,  fighting 
viciously  for  the  spoils  of  their  forays.  Women,  hollow-eyed 
and  brazen-faced,  with  foul  drapery  tied  over  their  heads,  their 
dresses  half-torn  from  their  skinny  bosoms,  and  their  feet  thrust 
into  trodden-down  slippers,  moved  here  and  there,  stealing,  scold- 
ing shrilly,  and  laughing  with  one  another  at  some  particularly 
"splendid"  gush  of  flame  or  "beautiful"  falling-in  of  a  roof. 
One  woman  on  Adams  Street  was  drawn  out  of  a  burning  house 
three  times,  and  rushed  back  wildly  into  the  blazing  ruin  each 
time,  insane  for  the  moment.  Every-where  dust,  smoke,  flame, 
heat,  thunder  of  falling  walls,  crackle  of  fire,  hissing  of  water, 
panting  of  engines,  shouts,  braying  of  trumpets,  roar  of  wind, 
tumult,  confusion,  and  uproar. 

"From  the  roof  of  a  tall  stable  and  warehouse,  to  which  the 
writer  clambered,  the  sight  was  one  of  unparalleled  sublimity 
and  terror.  He  was  above  almost  the  whole  fire,  for  the  build- 
ings in  the  locality  were  all  small  wooden  structures.  The 
crowds  directly  under  him  could  not  be  distinguished,  because 
of  the  curling  volumes  of  crimson  smoke  through  which  an  oc- 
casional scarlet  lift  could  be  seen.  He  could  feel  the  heat  and 
smoke  and  hear  the  maddened  Babel  of  sounds,  and  it  required 
little  imagination  to  believe  one's  self  looking  over  the  ada- 
mantine bulwarks  of  hell  into  the  bottomless  pit.  On  the 
left,  where  two  tall  buildings  were  in  a  blaze,  the  flame  piled 
up  high  over  our  heads,  making  a  lurid  background,  against 
19 


218  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

which  were  limned  in  strong  relief  the  people  on  the  roofs  be- 
tween. Fire  was  'a  strong  painter  and  dealt  in  weird  effects, 
using  only  black  and  red,  and  laying  them  boldly  on.  We 
could  note  the  very  smallest  actions  of  these  figures — a  branch- 
man  wiping  the  sweat  from  his  brow  with  his  cuff  and  reset- 
tling his  helmet,  a  spectator  shading  his  eyes  with  his  hand 
to  peer  into  the  fiery  sea.  Another  gesticulating  wildly  with 
clenched  fist  brought  down  on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  as  he 
pointed  toward  some  unseen  thing.  To  the  right  the  faces  of 
the  crowd  in  the  street  could  be  seen,  but  not  their  bodies.  All 
were  white  and  upturned,  and  every  feature  was  as  strongly 
marked  as  if  it  had  been  part  of  an  alabaster  mask.  Far  away, 
indeed  for  miles  around,  could  be  seen,  ringed  by  a  circle  of  red 
light,  the  sea  of  house-tops  broken  by  spires  and  tall  chimneys, 
and  the  black  and  angry  lake  on  which  were  a  few  pale,  white 
sails." 

This  writer  evidently  gets  slightly  "at  sea"  with  his  "pale, 
white  sails,"  for  no  sail  would  be  out  in  such  a  wind  as  blew 
that  night — at  least  not  with  any  canvas  flying;  but  his  scene 
is  otherwise  "drawn  from  the  life." 

The  hotels — those  immense  caravansaries  for  which  Chicago 
had  become  noted  above  all  other  cities — were  filled  with  guests, 
who,  having,  up  to  two  o'clock,  no  intimation  that  any  danger 
threatened,  were  all  soundly  sleeping  at  that  hour.  There  was 
the  greatest  danger — indeed  one  might  say  a  certainty — that 
many  of  these  would  perish  before  they  could  be  aroused  and 
got  out  of  the  vast  buildings  in  which  th^y  were  imprisoned. 
It  is  now  believed,  however,  that  all  the  occupants  of  the  ho- 
tels— the  nine-story  Palmer,  the  seven-story  Sherman,  with  its 
mile  of  halls,  the  Tremont,  Briggs,  and  the  rest — all  escaped 
in  safety  to  the  streets,  whatever  may  have  been  their  fate 


A   NIGHT  OF  TEKROB.  219 

afterward.  Undoubtedly  many  of  them  perished  in  trying  to 
thread  their  way  through,  the  burning  streets,  unacquainted,  as 
they  were,  with  the  geography  of  the  city,  and  hindered  by 
their  attempts  to  save  their  luggage. 

The  lowest  price  at  which  a  hack  or  cart  could  be  obtained 
for  this  service  was  ten  dollars ;  and  from  that  figure  it  ranged 
upward,  according  to  the  ability  of  the  owner  or  the  degree  of 
the  hackman's  devilishness.  Mr.  E.  I.  Tinkham,  the  cashier 
of  one  of  the  banks,  actually  paid  an  expressman  one  thousand 
dollars  for  taking  a  box  to  the  railroad  depot  on  the  west  side, 
a  distance  of  a  mile;  but  this  was  an  unusual  case,  the  box  car- 
ried being  full  of  treasure,  amounting  to  $600,000,  taken  from 
the  bank-vaults,  and  to  be  carried  through  walls  of  fire  at  the 
peril  of  the  brave  carter's  life.  This  case  is  not  to  be  reckoned 
among  those  of  inhuman  wretches  of  drivers  who  extorted  all 
a  poor  man's  means,  or  perhaps  a  helpless  woman's,  for  taking 
on  board  a  trunk  containing  a  meager  remnant  of  clothing, 
perhaps  to  be  thrown  off  at  the  next  corner,  where  the  extort- 
ing process  could  be  repeated  upon  another  customer.  It  was 
in  the  North  Division  that  the  vulture-like  qualities  of  the  ex- 
pressmen and  other  drivers  culminated;  for  it  was  there  that 
the  distress  was  greatest,  and  the  demand  for  vehicles  most  ur- 
gent. By  the  time  the  flames  had  reached  the  north  side,  all 
thought  of  checking  its  progress  had  long  been  abandoned,  and 
the  only  hope  of  the  most  hopeful  was  to  escape  with  their 
lives  and  a  few  of  such  valuables  and  clothing  as  they  could 
lay  hands  upon  in  the  haste  of  their  flight.  There  were  many 
carters  about,  but  they  wanted  now  fifty  dollars  for  moving  a 
load.  Having  found  a  victim,  they  would  stop  midway  and 
assess  him  again,  or  if  he  refused  to  submit  to  their  levies,  or 
was  unable  to  pay  them,  off  went  his  goods  into  the  street,  to 


220  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

be  ravaged  by  roughs,  trampled  upon  by  the  crowd,  or  con- 
sumed by  the  flames.  In  more  than  one  case,  however,  these 
unconscionable  drivers  were  brought  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  by 
a  sudden  declaration  of  martial  law  on  the  part  of  the  owner, 
and  the  exhibition  of  a  loaded  revolver — a  sort  of  mandamus 
fully  excusable  in  such  a  strait. 

The  fugitives  from  the  fire  on  the  south  side  had  fortunately 
had  many  avenues  of  egress,  so  that  it  was  only  those  who  too 
bravely  or  too  rashly  staid  to  save  friends  or  treasures,  or  those 
who,  by  reason  of  the  night's  debauches,  or  other  cause,  slept 
too  soundly  in  their  isolated  quarters,  who  fell  a  prey  to  the 
raging  element.  Others  fled  in  the  direction  which  their  im- 
pulse or  reason  suggested.  They  had  reason  to  thank  the  flat 
topography  and  square,  open  plan  of  the  city  for  their  deliv- 
ery from  being  roasted  by  thousands  in  the  flames.  "Without 
straight  broad  streets,  plenty  of  bridges  across  the  river  and  its 
branches,  and  an  open  country  on  three  sides  of  the  city,  the 
slaughter  must  have  been  terrible;  for  the  streets  would  have 
been  irremediably  choked  with  colliding  vehicles  and  the  peo- 
ple cornered  up  and  consumed  by  the  flames.  As  it  was,  those 
who,  instead  of  flying  straight  to  a  point  to  the  south  or  west 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  monster,  shrank  to  the  nearest  refuge — 
the  lake-shore — or  fled  northward  before  the  whelming  wave, 
fared  the  worst  of  all.  The  narrow  space  of  unoccupied  lake- 
shore  lying  between  Randolph  and  Congress  Streets,  and  adjoin- 
ing "the  basin" — a  section  of  the  lake  protected  by  a  break- 
water— was  crowded  during  the  night  and  early  morning  with 
forlorn  creatures  of  all  classes,  and  strewn  with  every  descrip- 
tion of  goods  snatched  from  burning  homes.  Each  fugitive 
had  brought  along  some  article  or  other — whatever  was  most 
dearly  prized  or  could  be  most  hastily  reached ;  but,  by  and  by, 


A   NIGHT  OF  TERROR.  221 

as  the  rigors  of  the  situation  increased,  they  had  abandoned 
these  impedimenta,  and  strove  only  to  save  what  \vas  dearest  of 
all,  their  lives.  As  the  choking  heat  increased  and  the  smoke 
blinded  their  eyes,  and  the  sparks  and  brands  fell  in  thicker 
showers,  those  poor  creatures  shrank  further  and  further  into 
the  chilling  water  of  the  basin.  The  most  of  them  were  women, 
and  their  shrieks  and  moans  enhanced  the  terrors  of  the  scene. 
One  of  these — apparently  quite  delicate— came  bringing  an  im- 
mensely heavy  sewing-machine;  and  when  her  place  of  refuge 
became  too  hot  to  live  in,  she  seized  her  ponderous  burden  and 
bore  it  on  southward.  Poor  thing!  she  must  sustain  it,  for  it 
is  now  all  that  is  left  to  sustain  her!  Another  young  woman 
clutches  a  small  bundle — probably  her  clothing — so  tenaciously 
as  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  a  ruffian,  who  knocks  her  down, 
seizes  her  precious  package  and  makes  off  with  it.  Here  is  an- 
other group — two  daughters  supporting  an  invalid  mother,  who 
faints  repeatedly,  each  time  as  if  dead.  With  such  scenes  as 
these  the  night  wears  away. 

By  and  by  all  chance  of  escape  to  the  southward,  of  which 
the  braver  ones  have  been  availing  themselves  hitherto,  is  cut 
off,  and  the  shrieking  fugitives  are  now  pent  up  between  a  fiery 
and  a  watery  death — the  terrors  of  which  are  increased  by  the 
suffering  and  ruffianism  around  them,  and  the  wide-spread  ruin 
beyond,  the  loss  of  home,  property,  and  perhaps  kindred,  al- 
ready accomplished,  and  the  state  of  poverty  into  which  they 
must  now  emerge,  if  emerge  they  should  at  all. 

This  was  the  situation  through  nearly  twelve  hours,  from 
Sunday  midnight  to  Monday  noon,  at  which  time  the  flames 
had  been  subdued  at  the  south,  and  the  immediate  terrors  of 
the  situation  removed.  Those  terrors  were  eclipsed  by  those 
suffered  by  the  denizens  of  the  ill-fated  North  Division.  These 


222  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

were,  for  the  most  part,  surprised  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  woke  to  find  themselves  surrounded  by  fire.  The  man- 
ner in  which  the  conflagration  spread  in  this  part  of  the  city 
has  been  already  described.  Called  from  their  beds  to  witness 
the  fire  upon  the  south  side  of  the  river,  the  people  cf  the 
quiet  and  elegant  residence-quarter  east  of  Clark  and  south  of 
Superior  Streets  were  gazing  at  the  magnificent  spectacle  and 
uttering  their  exclamations  of  pity  for  the  unfortunate  inhab- 
itants across  the  river,  when  they  discovered,  to  their  horror, 
that  the  flames  had  already  been  communicated  to  their  own 
quarter,  and  that  the  Water- works  and  other  buildings  to  the 
rear  of  them  were  all  ablaze!  The  appalling  significance  of 
this  discovery  was  soon  apparent  to  all.  It  meant  that  their 
own  homes  were  doomed,  and  that,  before  they  could  save  any 
of  their  goods — perhaps  before  they  could  escape  with  their 
lives — they  would  be  walled  in  on  either  side  by  fire. 

A  terrible  panic  ensued.  There  was  sudden  screaming  and 
dashing  about  of  half- clad  women,  gathering  up  such  valuables 
as  could  be  suddenly  snatched.  There  was  frantic  rushing  into 
the  streets  and  shouting  for  vehicles.  There  was  anxious  in- 
quiry and  anon  distressed  cries  for  absent  protectors — a  large 
portion  of  the  men  being  on  the  far  side  of  the  river,  and  in 
many  cases  unable  to  reach  their  homes.  Then  there  was  a 
pell-mell  rush  through  the  streets,  some  of  the  wild  faces  push- 
ing eagerly  in  this  direction  and  others  quite  as  eagerly  in  the 
opposite;  and  children  screaming;  and  shouts  resounding;  and 
brands  falling  in  showers;  and  truckmen  running  each  other 
down;  and  half-drunken,  wholly  desperate  ruffians  peering  into 
doors  and  seizing  valuables,  and  insulting  women;  and  oaths 
from  lips  unused  to  them,  as  hot  as  the  flames  which  leaped  and 
crackled  near  by;  and  prayers  from  manly  breasts  where  they 


A   NIGHT   OF  TERBOB.  223 

Lad  slumbered  since  childhood;  and  every  other  sign  of  tur- 
moil and  terror. 

Those  who  had  sufficient  warning  endeavored  to  escape  to  the 
northward  with  their  best  effects.  Mr.  Eastman,  the  Postmas- 
ter of  the  city,  whose  house  was  on  Erie  Street,  hauled  out  some 
trunks  of  clothing,  and  found  a  hackman  whom  he  desired  to 
take  them  on  board,  but  the  fee  demanded  exceeded  his  means, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  drag  his  trunks  along,  with  the  help  of  a 
maid-servant,  his  wife  carrying  her  infant  in  her  arms.  Four 
limes  they  halted,  exhausted,  in  what  seemed  a  place  of  safety, 
and  four  times  they  were  driven  on  by  the  insatiate  flames. 

The  most  natural  resort  of  the  people  of  the  quarter  men- 
tioned, however,  was  the  sandy  beach  of  the  lake,  where  there 
were  but  few  houses,  and  those  were  shanties.  This  strip  of 
shore,  known  as  "  the  Sands,"  was  famous,  or,  rather,  infamous, 
in  years  agone,  as  the  locale  of  numerous  low  brothels,  to  which 
"Long  John"  Wentworth,  when  Mayor  of  the  city,  gave  the 
coup  de  grace  by  allowing  them  to  burn  up.  Their  place  had 
never  been  fully  occupied,  and  to  the  bleak,  narrow  area  thus 
afforded,  the  terrified  population  shrank  for  refuge  from  the 
pursuing  monster.  Such  an  assemblage  as  there  congregated, 
Chicago  never  witnessed  before  and  probably  never  will  witness 
again.  It  was  the  scene  at  the  "basin"  repeated,  with  more 
diversity.  The  extremes  of  wealth  and  squalor  had  been  dwell- 
ing within  a  stone's  throw  of  each  other  in  this  section  of  the 
city  jfhich  had  emptied  itself  upon  this  scant  skirt  of  sand. 
These  inequalities  of  societies  were  now  leveled  off  as  smooth 
as  the  beach  itself.  No,  not  leveled ;  for  the  landlord  and  aris- 
tocrat, whose  many  stores  are  burning  o"n  the  other  side,  aud  his 
precious  library  and  cabinet — the  accumulation  of  a  doting  life- 
time— has  still  a  preferment  over  the  boor  who  now  jostles  him ; 


224  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

he  is  allowed  to  lose  more  and  to  suffer  more,  and  is  required 
to  lament  less.  But  that  is  all;  the  two  must  for  tonight  share 
each  other's  bed — the  damp  sand — and  to-morrow  each  other's 
fare — nothing  but  sights  of  horror. 

Scarce  a  person  among  the  thousands  collected  on  the  sands, 
and  there  pent  up  for  thirty  hours,  but  had  lost  some  dear  one 
in  the  confusion  attending  the  escape  from  their  burning  houses 
Whether  these  were  alive  or  dead,  none  could  know. 

Here  was  the  wife  of  a  well-known  musician,  with  her  two 
children — one  of  them  but  three  months  old.  When  the  flames 
came  too  close,  she  must  retreat  into  the  water,  breast-deep,  and 
bear  them  aloft.  Her  husband,  after  escaping  with  her  from 
their  house,  had  gone  back  to  save  some  precious  article  from 
the  fire,  and  had  not  returned  to  her. 

Here  was  a  distracted  husband  who  had  failed  in  his  effort 
to  reach  his  invalid  wife — a  cousin  of  the  celebrated  Madame 
Parepa  Rosa,  and  a  lady  of  rare  gifts.  (Poor  woman !  she  died 
a  few  days  afterward,  a  raving  maniac,  and  one  of  the  many 
victims  of  the  conflagration.) 

Here  was  a  family  of  brothers  and  sisters,  mourning  a  mother 
who  had  perished  before  their  eyes.  Here  were  sick  ones, 
snatched  from  their  beds,  and  dying  of  exposure. 

Here  was  every  imaginable  scene  of  distress,  and  knotted 
threads  of  narrative,  which,  if  followed,  would  fill  this  book 
many  times  over. 

As  the  morning  advanced,  some  of  the  sufferers,  crawling 
along  the  shore  and  down  upon  a  pier,  were  taken  up  by  tugs 
and  propellers  and  carried  up  the  river  or  out  to  sea  for  safety. 
They  embarked  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  for  the  docks  were 
on  fire,  and  more  than  one  staunch  steamer  burned  alongside. 

Such  of  the  north  side  people  as  did  not  resort  to  the  lake 


A    NIGHT   OF  TERROR.  225 

betook  themselves  toward  Lincoln  Park,  where  a  day  and  night 
of  imprisonment  and  exposure  awaited  them,  or  (which  proved 
the  wisest  course)  escaped  to  the  west  side,  where  they  found 
shelter  with  friends,  or,  at  least,  safety  upon  the  open  prairie. 
Chicago  Avenue  was  the  main  avenue  of  escape,  and  this  be- 
coming choked  with  vehicles  and  goods,  many  perished  in  the 
attempt  to  reach  the  next  thoroughfare  to  the  north.  Bremer 
and  Wesson  Streets,  in  this  vicinity,  were  found  strewn  with 
charred  corpses  when  the  smoke  cleared  away. 

All  Monday  the  fire  raged  through  the  ill-fated  North  Di- 
vision ;  but  its  progress  was  noted  with  little  interest,  except  by 
the  luckless  people  whose  abodes  it  seized  upon  as  it  advanced ; 
for  every  body  had  given  up  the  whole  of  that  quarter  as  lost, 
and  there  was  no  longer  any  struggle,  even  of  hope  and  fear. 
It  seemed  as  if  those  emotions  had  run  down,  as  a  clock,  neg- 
lected by  its  keeper,  stops  for  lack  of  winding.  The  index  had 
stopped  at  the  figure  of  despair ! 


CHAPTER    III. 

PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES. 

The  early  stages  of  the  fire — The  purlieu  which  generated  it — A  scene  for 
a  fire-worshiper — A  weird  procession — Discussing  the  future  by  the 
light  of  the  past 

A  CCOUNTS  of  the  experiences  of  eye-witnesses  are  like 
-*••*-  photographic  views  in  conveying  to  the  reader  minute 
facts  which  can  not  be  reached  in  a  general  sketch.  Accord- 
ingly we  give  several  statements — the  most  graphic,  and  at  the 
same  time  strictly  truthful,  which  we  have  anywhere  seen.  The 
first  is  that  of  Mr.  J.  E.  Chamberlin,  a  young  journalist,  whose 
curiosity  led  him  to  follow  up  closely  the  conflagration  of  the 
7th,  as  well  as  the  Great  Conflagration  which  followed  on  the 
8th  and  9th.  He  says : 

"  I  was  at  the  scene  in  a  few  minutes.  The  fire  had  already 
advanced  a  distance  of  about  a  single  square  through  the  frame 
buildings  that  covered  the  ground  thickly  north  of  De  Koven 
Street  and  east  of  Jefferson  Street — if  those  miserable  alleys  shall 
be  dignified  by  being  denominated  streets.  That  neighborhood 
had  always  been  a  terra  incognita  to  respectable  Chicagoans,  and 
during  a  residence  of  three  years  in  the  city  I  had  never  visited 
it.  The  land  was  thickly  studded  with  one-story  frame  dwell- 
ings, cow-stables,  pig-sties,  corn-cribs,  sheds  innumerable;  every 
(225} 


PERSONAL,    EXPERIENCES.  227 

wretched  building  within  four  feet  of  its  neighbor,  and  every, 
thing  of  wood — not  a  brick  or  a  stone  in  the  whole  area.  The 
fire  was 'under  full  headway  in  this  combustible  mass  before  the 
engines  arrived,  and  what  could  be  done?  Streams  were  thrown 
into  the  flame,  and  evaporated  almost  as  soon  as  they  struck  it. 
A  single  fire-engine  in  the  blazing  forests  of  Wisconsin  would 
have  been  as  .effective  as  were  these  machines  in  a  forest  of  shan- 
ties thrice  as  combustible  as  the  pine  woods  of  the  North.  But 
still  the  firemen  kept  at  work  fighting  the  flames — stupidly  and 
listlessly,  for  they  had  worked  hard  all  of  Saturday  night  and 
most  of  Sunday,  and  had  been  enervated  by  the  whisky  which 
is  always  copiously  poured  on  such  occasions.  .1  stepped  in 
among  some  sheds  south  of  Ewing  Street;  a  fence  by  my  side 
began  to  blaze;  I  beat  a  hasty  retreat,  and  in  five  minutes  the 
place  where  I  had  stood  was  all  ablaze.  Nothing  could  stop 
that  conflagration  there.  It  must  sweep  on  until  it  reached  a 
broad  street,  and  then,  every  body  said,  it  would  burn  itself 
out. 

"  Ewing  Street  was  quite  a  thoroughfare  for  that  region.  It 
is  a  mere  alley,  it  is  true,  but  is  somewhat  broader  than  the  sur- 
rounding lanes.  It  has  elevated  board  sidewalks,  and  is  passa- 
ble for  teams  in  dry  weather.  On  that  night  it  was  crowded 
with  people  pouring  out  of  the  thickly-settled  locality  between 
Jefferson  Street  and  the  river,  and  here  the  first  panic  began. 
The  wretched  female  inhabitants  were  rushing  out  almost  naked, 
imploring  spectators  to  help  them  on  with  their  burdens  of  bed- 
quilts,  cane-bottomed  chairs,  iron  kettles,  etc.  Drays  were  thun- 
dering along  in  the  single  procession  which  the  narrowness  of 
the  street  allowed,  and  all  was  confusion. 

"  When  the  fire  had  passed  Ewing  Street,  I  hurried  on  to  Har- 
rison, aware  of  the  fact  that  the  only  hope  for  the  staying  of  tne 


228  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

conflagration  was  in  the  width  of  that  street,  and  hoping  that 
some  more  effective  measures  than  squirting  of  water  would  be 
taken  at  that  point.  The  same  scene  of  hurry  and  confusion 
was  repeated  at  Harrison  on  a  larger  scale  than  at  Ewing ;  and 
that  same  scene  kept  on  increasing  in  terror  all  night  long,  as 
the  fire  moved  northward.  The  crowd  anxiously  watched  the 
flames  as  they  approached  the  street,  and  the  universal  remark 
was:  'If  it  passes  this,  nothing  can  stop  it  but  last  night's 
burned  district.'  At  length  the  fire  reached  the  street,  and 
broke  out  almost  simultaneously  for  a  distance  of  two  squares. 
The  two  fire-engines  which  stood  in  Harrison  Street  fled  in  ter- 
ror. Brands  of  fire,  driven  on  by  the  gale,  struck  the  houses 
on  the  north  side  of  the  street.  Though  mostly  of  brick,  they 
ignited  like  tinder,  and  the  fire  swept  northward  again. 

"Again  I  passed  into  Jefferson  Street,  keeping  on  the  flank 
of  the  fire.  In  a  vacant  square,  filled  with  refugees  from  the 
fire  and  their  rescued  effects,  I  stopped  a  few  minutes  to  watch 
the  fiery  ocean  before  me.  The  open  lot  was  covered  with  peo- 
ple, and  a  strange  sight  was  presented.  The  fire  had  reached  a 
better  section,  and  many  people  of  the  better  class  were  among 
those  who  had  gathered  a  few  of  their  household  goods  on  that 
open  space.  Half  a  dozen  rescued  pianos  were  watched  by  deli- 
cate ladies,  while  the  crowd  still  surged  in  every  direction.  Two 
boys,  themselves  intoxicated,  reeled  about,  each  bearing  a  small 
cask  of  whisky,  out  of  which  he  insisted  upon  treating  every 
body  he  met.  Soon  more  casks  of  whisky  appeared,  and  scores 
of  excited  men  drank  deeply  of  their  contents.  The  result  was, 
of  course,  that  an  equal  number  of  drunken  men  were  soon  im- 
peding the  flight  of  the  fugitives. 

"  When  I  reached  Van  Buren  Street,  the  southern  limit  of 
the  Saturday  night  fire,  I  paused  to  see  the  end  of  the  confla- 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  229 

gration.  A.  single  engine  stood  on  Van  Buren  Street,  doing 
what  seemed  to  me  good  service  in  preventing  the  fire  from  eat- 
ing its  way  westward,  against  the  wind,  which  it  was  apparently 
determined  to  do.  Suddenly  the  horses  were  attached  to  the  en- 
gine, and,  as  soon  as  the  hose  was  reeled,  it  disappeared,  whirling 
northward  on  Jefferson  Street.  What  did  it  mean?  I  caught 
the  words, '  Across  the  river/  uttered  doubtingly  by  a  bystander. 
The  words  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  there  was  uni- 
versal incredulity,  although  the  suggestion  was  communicated 
through  the  crowd  with  startling  rapidity.  There  was  a  gen- 
eral movement  northward  and  out  of  the  smoke,  with  a  view  to 
discover  whether  it  was  really  possible  that  the  fire  had  been 
blown  across  the  river,  and  had  started  afresh  on  the  south  side. 
I  went  with  the  rest,  crossed  the  burnt  ground  of  the  night  be- 
fore, stood  on  the  embankment  that  had  been  Canal  Street,  and 
perceived,  through  the  clouds  of  smoke,  a  bright  light  across 
the  river.  I  rushed  to  the  Adams-street  viaduct  and  across  the 
bridge.  The  Armory,  the  Gas-works,  '  Conley's  Patch/  and 
Wells  Street,  as  far  north  as  Monroe,  were  all  on  fire.  The 
wind  had  increased  to  a  tempest,  and  hurled  great  blazing 
brands  over  our  heads. 

"  At  this  point  my  duty  called  me  to  my  home  in  the  West 
Division;  but  within  an  hour  I  was  back  again  to  witness  the 
doom  of  the  blazing  city,  of  which  I  then  had  a  full  presenti- 
ment. The  streets  on  the  west  side  were  as  light  as  broad  noon. 
I  looked  at  my  watch  and  saw  that  it  was  just  two  o'clock.  As 
I  ran  down  Monroe  Street,  with  thj|  burning  town  before  me,  I 
contemplated  the  ruin  that  was  working,  and  the  tears  rose  t(T 
my  eyes.  I  could  have  wept  at  that  saddest  of  sights,  but  I 
choked  down  the  tears,  and  they  did  not  rise  again  that  night. 

"  When  I  crossed  the  river,  I  made  a  desperate  attempt  to 


230  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

reach  my  office  on  Madison  Street,  beyond  Clark.  I  pressed 
through  the  crowd  on  Randolph  Street  as  far  as  Lasalle,  and 
stood  in  front  of  the  burning  Court-house.  The  cupola  was  in 
full  blaze,  and  presented  a  scene  of  the  sublimest  as  well  as  most 
melancholy  beauty.  Presently  the  great  tower  was  undermined 
by  the  fire  below,  and  fell  to  the  bottom  with  a  dull  sound  and  a 
heavy  shock  that  shook  the  earth.  Somebody  called  out,  'Ex- 
plosion!' and  a  panic  ensued,  in  which  every  thing  and  every 
body  was  carried  westward.  Then  I  went  to  Lake  Street,  and 
found  a  torrent  of  sparks  sweeping  down  that  avenue.  But  I 
pulled  my  hat  about  my  eyes,  buttoned  up  my  coat-collar,  and 
rushed  eastward,  determined  to  reach  my  office.  I  turned  down 
Dearborn,  and  leaped  through  a  maelstrom  of  scorching  sparks. 
The  fiery  storm  at  length  drove  me  into  an  open  store,  from 
which  the  occupants  had  fled.  I  seized  a  large  blanket  which 
they  had  left  on  the  floor,  wrapped  it  around  my  head  and  body, 
and  sallied  forth  again.  I  went  as  far  as  Washington  Street, 
but  any  attempt  at  further  progress  would  have  been  madness. 
I  beat  a  hasty  retreat  to  Lake  Street,  and  came  down  Lnsalle 
again  to  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  fire. 

"And  now.  the  scene  of  confusion  had  reached  its  height. 
Wagons  were  rushing  through  the  streets,  laden  with  stocks  of 
goods,  books,  valuable  papers,  boxes  of  money,  and  every  thing 
conceivable;  scores  of  men  were  dragging  trunks  frantically 
along  the  sidewalks,  knocking  down  women  and  children  ;  fab- 
ulous sums  of  money  were  offered  truckmen  for  conveyances. 
The  scene  was  indescribable. 

"  But,  as  large  as  was  the  number  of  people  who  were  flying 
from  the  fire,  the  number  of  passive  spectators  was  still  larger. 
Their  eyes  were  all  diverted  from  the  skurrying  mass  of  peo- 
ple around  them  to  the  spectacle  of  appalling  grandeur  before 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  231 

them.  They  stood  transfixed,  with  a  mingled  feeling  of  horror 
and  admiration,  and  while  they  often  exclaimed  at  the  beauty 
of  the  scene,  they  all  devoutly  prayed  that  they  might  never 
soe  such  another.  The  noise  of  the  conflagration  was  terrific. 
To  the  roar  which  the  simple  process  of  combustion  always 
makes,  magnified  here  to  so  -grand  an  extent,  was  added  the 
crash  of  falling  buildings  and  the  constant  explosions  of  stores 
of  oil  and  other  like  material.  The  noise  of  the  crowd  was 
nothing  compared  with  this  chaos  of  sound.  All  these  things 
— the  great,  dazzling,  mounting  light,  the  crash  and  roar  of  the 
conflagration,  and  the  desperate  flight  of  the  crowd — combined 
to  make  a  scene  of  which  no  intelligent  idea  can  be  conveyed 
in  words. 

"When  it  became  too  hot  in  Randolph  Street,  I  retired  to 
the  eastern  approach  of  the  bridge  on  that  street.  A  knot  of 
men  had  gathered  there,  from  whom  all  signs  of  excitement 
had  disappeared.  It  was  then  almost  four  o'clock,  and  what- 
ever excitement  we  had  felt  during  the  night  had  passed  away. 
Wearied  with  two  nights  of  exertion,  I  sat  upon  the  railing 
and  looked  down  on  the  most  appalling  spectacle  of  the  whole 
night.  The  Briggs  House,  the  Metropolitan  House,  Peter 
Schuttler's  wagon  manufactuory,  Heath  &  Mulligan's  oil  estab- 
lishment, stored  five  stories  high  with  exceedingly  inflammable 
material,  the  Nevada  Hotel,  and  all  the  surrounding  buildings, 
were  in  a  simultaneous  blaze.  The  flames,  propelled  by  varia- 
ble gusts  of  wind,  seemed  to  pour  down  Randolph  Street  in  a 
liquid  torrent.  Then  the  appearance  was  changed,  and  the  fire 
was  a  mountain  over  our  heads.  The  barrels  of  oil  in  Heath's 
store  exploded  with  a  sound  like  rattling  musketry.  The  great 
north  wall  of  the  Nevada  Hotel  plunged  inward  with  hardly  a 
sound,  so  great  was  the  din  of  the  surrounding  conflagration. 


232  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GBEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

The  Garden  City  House  burned  like  a  box  of  matches;  the 
rapidity  of  its  disappearance  was  remarked  by  every  body.  To- 
ward the  east  and  north-east  we  looked  upon  a  surging  ocean  of 
flame. 

"  Meanwhile  a  strange  scene  was  being  enacted  in  the  street 
before  us.  A  torrent  of  humanity  was  pouring  over  the  bridge. 
Madison-street  bridge  had  long  before  become  impassable,  and 
Randolph  was  the  only  outlet  for  the  entire  region  south  of  it. 
Drays,  ex  press- wagons,  trucks,  and  conveyances  of  every  con- 
ceivable species  and  size,  crowded  across  in  indiscriminate  haste. 
Collisions  happened  almost  every  moment,  and  when  one  over- 
loaded wagon  broke  down,  there  were  enough  men  on  hand  to 
drag  it  and  its  contents  over  the  bridge  by  main  force.  The 
same  long  line  of  men  dragging  trunks  was  there,  many  of  them 
tugging  over  the  ground  with  loads  which  a  horse  would  strain 
at.  Women  were  there,  looking  exactly  like  those  I  had  seen 
all  night,  staggering  under  weights  upon  their  backs.  Whole 
establishments  of  ill-fame  were  there,  their  half-dozen  inmates 
loaded  into  the  bottoms  of  ex  press- wagons,  driven,  of  course,  by 
their '  men.'  Now  and  then  a  stray  schooner,  which,  for  want  of 
a  tug,  had  been  unable  to  escape  earlier  from  the  south  branch, 
came  up,  and  the  bridge  must  be  opened.  Then  arose  a  howl 
of  indignation  along  the  line,  which,  being  near,  was  audible 
above  the  tumult.  A  brig  lay  above  us  in  the  stream,  and  the 
capf  iin  was  often  v/arned  by  the  crowd  that  he  must  make  his 
exit  at  once,  if  hr  wished  to  save  his  craft — a  suggestion  the 
force  of  which  he  doubtless  appreciated,  as  he  stood  upon  the 
quarter-deck  calling  frantically  to  every  tug  that  passed. 

"  I  saw  an  Undertaker  rushing  over  the  bridge  with  his  mourn- 
ful stock.  ]J/  had  taken  a  dray,  but  was  unable  to  load  all  of 
his  goods  i  »1  •  Se  vehicle.  So  he  employed  half  a  dozen  boys, 


CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE. 


;ilAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  AFTER  THE  FIRE. 


RUSH  MEDICAL  COLLEGE. 


FIFTH  NATIONAL  BANK. 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  233 

gave  each  of  them  a  coffin,  took  a  large  one  himself,  and  headed 
the  weird  procession.  The  sight  of  those  coffins,  upright,  and 
bobbing  along  just  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd,  •without  any 
apparent  help  from  any  body  else,  was  somewhat  startling,  and 
the  unavoidable  suggestion  was  that  they  were  escaping  across 
the  river  to  be  ready  for  use  when  the  debris  of  the  conflagra- 
tion should  be  cleared  away.  But  just  as  men  in  the  midst  of 
a  devastating  plague  carouse  over  each  new  corpse,  and  drink  to 
the  next  who  dies,  so  we  laughed  quite  merrily  at  the  ominous 
spectacle. 

"  At  last  it  became  too  warm  to  be  comfortable  on  the  east  side 
of  the  river.  The  fire  was  burning  along  Market  Street,  and 
many  were  the  conjectures  whether  Lind's  block  would  go.  The 
buildings  opposite  burned  with  a  furnace-heat,  but  Lind's  block 
stands  now,  a  monument  to  its  own  isolation. 

"And  then  the  question  was  every-where  asked,  'Will  Chi- 
cago ever  recover  from  this  blow?'  Many  suggestions  were 
offered  on  this  subject  The  general  opinion  was  that  the  city 
could  never  again  obtain  a  foothold.  Said  one  old  gentleman, 
'  Our  capital  is  wiped  out  of  existence.  You  never  can  get  what 
money  is  stored  up  out  of  those  vaults.  There  is  n't  one  that 
can  stand  this  furnace-heat.  Whatever  the  fire  consumes  to- 
night is  utterly  consumed.  All  loss  is  total ;  for  there  will  not 
be  an  insurance  company  left  to-morrow.  The  trade  of  the  city 
must  go  to  St.  Louis,  to  Cincinnati,  and  to  New  York,  and  we 
never  can  get  hold  of  it  again.  We  could  n't  transact  any  busi- 
ness even  if  we  had  customers,  for  we  have  n't  got  anywhere  to 
transact  it.  Yes,  sir,  this  town  is  gone  up,  and  we  may  as  well 
get  out  of  it  at  once.'  Thus  all  seemed  to  talk,  and  there  was 
none  of  that  earnest,  hopeful  language  of  which  I  have  heard 
BO  much  since,  and  have  been  rejoiced  to  hear.  But  what  else 
20 


234  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GBEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

could  I  expect?  Those  men  stood  facing  the  burning  city. 
They  saw  those  great  hotels  and  warehouses  toppling,  one  after 
another,  to  the  ground.  Their  spirits  were  elastic,  as  subsequent 
events  have  proved,  but  on  that  terrible  night  they  were  drawn 
to  their  utmost  tension,  and  the  cord  came  near  breaking. 

• 

"  Tired  with  my  two  nights'  work  and  of  the  sad  sight  before 
me,  I  joined  the  crowd,  crossed  the  river,  went  up  Canal  Street 
and  lay  down  on  a  pile  of  lumber  in  Avery's  yard.  My  posi- 
tion was  at  the  confluence  of  the  north  and  south  branches,  di- 
rectly opposite  the  middle  of  the  main  river,  and  exactly  on  the 
dock.  All  solicitude  for  the  remaining  portion  of  the  city,  and 
all  appreciation  of  the  magnitude  of  the  tragedy  that  was  being 
acted  across  the  river,  had  left  me.  I  did  not  care  whether  the 
city  stood  or  burned.  I  was  dead,  so  far  as  my  sensibilities 
were  concerned.  Half  a  dozen  fellows — strangers — were  with 
me  on  the  lumber-pile,  and  were  as  listless  as  myself.  The 
chief  matter  which  seemed  to  interest  them  was  the  probable 
weight  of  one  of  their  party — a  fat  fellow,  whom  they  called 
Fred.  I  became  quite  interested  in  the  subject,  and  joined  in 
the  guessing.  Fred  kept  us  bursting  in  ignorance  awhile,  and 
then,  in  a  burst  of  confidence,  told  us  he  weighed  206,  and 
begged  us  not  to  mention  it.  Meanwhile,  Wells-street  bridge 
took  fire,  and,  as  affording  something  novel,  attracted  our  at- 
tention for  a  few  minutes.  The  south  end  of  the  bridge  caught 
alight,  and  then  the  north  end.  But  the  north  end  burned  less 
rapidly  than  the  south,  and  soon  outbalanced  the  latter,  when, 
of  course,  the  whole  structure  tipped  to  the  northward,  and 
stood  fixed,  one  end  in  the  water,  at  an  angle  of  about  sixty 
degrees.  Then  the  fire  communicated  with  the  whole  frame- 
work, till  the  bridge  looked  like  a  skeleton  with  ribs  of  fire. 
But  presently  the  support  underneath  burned  away;  then  the 


PERSONAL  EXPERIENCES.  235 

skeleton  turned  a  complete  summersault  and  plunged  into  the 
river,  as  if,  warmed  into  life,  it  had  sought  refuge  from  the  flames 
which  were  consuming  it." 

[Our  contributor  here  details  his  adventures  upon  the  north 
side,  which  were  not  of  particular  moment.] 

"  When  I  had  regained  a  footing  in  the  favored  West  Divis- 
ion, it  was  seven  o'clock.  Then  a  curious-looking  crimson  ball 
came  up  out  of  the  lake,  which  they  said  was  the  sun ;  but  oh 
how  sickly  and  insignificant  it  looked!  I  had  watched  that 
greatest  of  the  world's  conflagrations  from  its  beginning  to  al- 
most its  end;  and  although  the  fire  was  still  blazing  all  over 
the  city  with  undiminished  luster,  I  could  not  look  at  it.  I 
was  almost  unable  to  walk  with  exhaustion  and  the  eflects  of 
a  long  season  of  excitement,  and  sought  my  home  for  an  hour's 
sleep.  As  I  passed  up  West  Madison  Street,  I  met  scores  of 
working  girls  on  their  way  '  down  town,'  as  usual,  bearing  their 
lunch-baskets  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  They  saw  the  fire 
and  smoke  before  them,  but  could  not  believe  that  the  city, 
with  their  means  of  livelihood,  had  been  swept  away  during 
that  night." 


CHAPTER    IV. 

PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES — CONTINUED. 

Narrative  of  Alexander  Frear — A  fond  mother's  mishaps — Scenes  on  the 
Avenues — Rifling  the  dry  goods  palaces — How  a  pious  soul  prayed 
herself  to  death — Asking  too  much  of  Providence — Human  diabolism 
— Cheapness  of  life. 

'R.ALEXANDER  FREAR,  a  New  York  alderman,. seems 
to  have  seen  as  much  of  the  fire  and  its  concomitants  as" 
any  other  person  in  the  city;  and  he  tells  his  adventures  in  a 
plain  and  straightforward  way  which  is  at  the  same  time  very 
graphic.  The  beginning  of  his  narrative,  as  we  quote  it,  finds 
Mr.  Frear  upon  the  west  side  of  the  river,  endeavoring  to  com- 
fort his  brother's  wife  (his  brother  being  absent  from  the  city) 
by  assuring  her  (what  proved  to  be  the  fact)  that  her  house,  on 
Ewing  Street,  would  not  be  touched  by  the  flames.  Neverthe- 
less, she  would  not  be  appeased  until  her  goods  and  children 
had  been  sent  over  to  the  house  of  a  friend  on  Wabash  Avenue. 
Then,  presently,  the  anxious  mother  had  to  follow  in  a  coach, 
procured  half  a  mile  away,  and  with  her  satchel  full  of  valuables 
in  her  hand.  After  a  hard  drive,  through  a  roundabout  route, 
they  were  stopped  by  the  jam  at  the  corner  of  Wabash  Avenue 
and  Washington  Street.  The  narrative  proceeds : 

"In  the  confusion  it  was  difficult  to  get  any  information; 

but  I  was  told  that  the  block  in  which  the  Kimballs  lived  (the 
(236) 


PERSONAL    EXPERIENCES.  237 

refuge  of  Mrs.  Frear's  children)  was  burning,  and  that  the  peo- 
ple were  all  out.  To  add  to  my  distress  Mrs.  Frear  jumped 
out  of  the  vehicle  and  started  to  run  in  the  direction  of  the  fire. 
Nothing,  I  am  satisfied,  saved  her  from  being  crushed  to  death 
in  a  mad  attempt  to  find  her  children  but  the  providential  ap- 
pearance of  an  acquaintance,  who  told  her  that  the  children 
werr  all  safe  at  the  St.  James  Hotel.  ...  I  found 
that  Mrs.  Frear's  acquaintance  had  either  intentionally  or  unin- 
tentionally deceived  her.  The  children  were  not  in  the  house. 
AY  hen  I  informed  her  of  it  she  fainted.  AYhen  she  was  being 
taken  up  stairs  to  the  parlor  I  found  she  had  lost  her  satchel. 
AYhether  it  was  left  in  the  cab  when  she  jumped  out,  or 
was  stolen  in  the  house,  I  can  not  say.  It  contained  two  gold 
watches,  several  pins  and  drops  of  value,  a  cameo  presented  to 
her  by  Mrs.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  medal  of  honor  belonging 
to  her  husband  (who  was  an  officer  in  the  First  Wisconsin  Vol- 
unteers during  the  war),  and  about  $200  in  bills  and  currency 
stamps,  besides  several  trinkets  of  trifling  value." 

Leaving  his  charge  in  the  care  of  some  ladies,  Mr.  Frear 
proceeded  in  search  of  the  children.  He  went  to  the  Sherman 
House,  where  all  was  panic.  "  I  looked  out,"  he  says,  "  of  one 
of  the  south  windows  of  the  house,  and  shall  never  forget  the 
terribly  magnificent  sight  I  saw.  The  Court-house  Park  was 
filled  with  people  who  appeared  to  be  huddled  together  in  a 
solid  mass,  helpless  and  astounded.  The  whole  air  was  filled 
with  the  falling  cinders,  and  it  looked  like  a  snow-storm  lit  by 
colored  fire.  The  weird  effect  of  the  glare  and  the  scintillating 
light  upon  this  vast  silent  concourse  was  almost  frightful.  AVhile 
in  the  corridor  of  the  Sherman  House  I  encountered  my  nephew, 
and  he  asked  me  if  I  wanted  to  see  the  fire,  saying  he  had  one  of 
George  Garrison's  horses  and  only  wanted  a  rubber  blanket  to 


238  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

throw  over  him  to  protect  him  from  the  sparks.  I  told  him 
about  Mrs.  Frear,  but  he  thought  there  was  no  reason  to  worry. 
He  got  a  blanket  somewhere,  and  we  started  off  in  a  light  wagon 
for  Wabash  Avenue,  stopping  at  Wright's,  under  the  Opera 
House,  to  get  a  drink  of  coffee,  which  I  needed  very  much. 
There  were  several  of  the  firemen  of  the  Little  Giant  in  there. 
One  of  the  men  was  bathing  his  head  with  whisky  from  a  flask. 
They  declared  that  the  entire  department  had  given  up,  over- 
worked, and  that  they  could  do  nothing  more.  While  we  stood 
there  an  Irish  girl  was  brought  in  with  her  dress  nearly  all 
burnt  from  her  person.  It  had  caught  on  the  Court-house 
steps  from  a  cinder.  When  we  went  out  a  man  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves was  unhitching  the  horse;  and  when  we  came  up  he 
sprung  into  the  wagon,  and  would  have  driven  off  in  spite  of 
us  if  I  had  not  caught  the  horse  by  the  head.  He  then  sprang 
out  and  struck  my  nephew  in  the  face,  and  ran  toward  State 
Street. 

"  We  drove  as  rapidly  as  we  could  into  Wabash  Avenue,  the 
wind  sweeping  the  embers  after  us  in  furious  waves.  We  passed 
a  broken-down  steamer  in  the  middle  of  the  roadway.  The 
avenue  was  a  scene  of  desolation.  The  storm  of  falling  fire 
seemed  to  increase  every  second,  and  it  was  as  much  as  we  could 
do  to  protect  ourselves  from  the  burning  rain  and  guide  the 
horse  through  the  flying  people  and  hurrying  vehicles.  Look- 
ing back  through  Washington  Street,  toward  the  Opera  House, 
I  saw  the  smoke  and  flames  pouring  out  of  State  Street,  from 
the  very  point  we  had  just  left,  and  the  intervening  space  was 
filled  with  the  whirling  embers  that  beat  against  the  houses  and 
covered  the  roofs  and  window-sills.  It  seemed  like  a  tornado 
of  fire.  To  add  to  the  terrors  the  animals,  burnt  and  infuriated 
by  the  cinders,  darted  through  the  streets  regardless  of  all  hu- 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  239 

man  obstacles.  Wabash  Avenue  was  burning  as  far  down  as 
Adams  Street.  The  flames  from  the  houses  on  the  west  side 
reached  in  a  diagonal  arch  quite  across  the  street,  and  occasion- 
ally the  wind  would  lift  the  great  body  of  flame,  detach  it  en- 
tirely from  the  burning  buildings,  and  hurl  it  with  terrific  force 
far  ahead.  All  the  mansions  were  being  emptied  with  the 
greatest  disorder  and  the  greatest  excitement.  Nobody  en- 
deavored to  stay  the  flames  now.  A  mob  of  men  and  women, 
all  screaming  and  shouting,  ran  about  wildly,  crossing  each 
other's  paths,  and  intercepting  each  other  as  if  deranged.  We 
tried  to  force  our  way  along  the  avenue,  which  was  already 
littered  with  costly  furniture,  some  of  it  burning  in  the  streets 
under  the  falling  sparks,  but  it  was  next  to  impossible.  Twice 
we  were  accosted  by  gentlemen  with  pocket-books  in  their 
hands,  and  asked  to  carry  away  to  a  place  of  safety  some  valu- 
able property.  Much  as  we  may  have  desired  to  assist  them, 
it  was  out  of  our  power.  Women  came  and  threw  packages 
into  the  vehicle,  and  one  man  with  a  boy  hanging  to  him 
caught  the  horse  and  tried  to  throw  us  out.  I  finally  got  out 
and  endeavored  to  lead  the  animal  out  of  the  terrible  scenes. 
When  we  had  gone  about  a  block  I  saw  that  the  Court-house  was 
on  fire,  and  almost  at  the  same  moment  some  one  said  the  St. 
James  had  caught  on  the  roof.  I  was  struck  on  the  arm  by 
a  bird-cage  flung  from  an  upper  window,  and  the  moment  I 
released  the  horse  he  shied  and  ran  into  a  burning  dray-load 
of  furniture,  smashing  the  wheel  of  the  wagon  and  throwing 
my  companion  out  on  his  shoulder.  Fortunately  he  was  only 
bruised.  But  the  horse,  already  terrified,  started  immediately, 
and  I  saw  him  disappear  with  a  leap  like  that  of  a  panther. 

"We  then  hurried  on  toward  the  St.  James  Hotel,  passing 
through  some  of  the  strangest  and  saddest  scenes  it  has  ever 


240"         CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

been  my  misfortune  to  witness.  I  saw  a  woman  kneeling  in 
the  street  with  a  crucifix  held  up  before  her  and  the  skirt  of 
her  dress  burning  while  she  prayed.  We  had  barely  passed  her 
before  a  runaway  truck  dashed  her  to  the  ground.  Loads  of 
goods  passed  us  repeatedly  that  were  burning  on  the  trucks,  and 
my  nephew  says  that  he  distinctly  saw  one  man  go  up  to  a  pile 
of  costly  furniture  lying  in  front  of  an  elegant  residence  and 
deliberately  hold  a  piece  of  burning  packing-box  under  it  until 
the  pile  was  lit.  When  we  reached  the  wholesale  stores  north 
of  Madison  Street  the  confusion  was  even  worse.  These  stores 
were  packed  full  of  the  most  costly  merchandise,  and  to  save 
it  at  the  rate  the  fire  was  advancing  was  plainly  impossible. 
There  was  no  police,  and  no  effort  was  made  to  keep  off  the 
rabble.  A  few  of  the  porters  and  draymen  employed  by  these 
stores  were  working  manftilly,  but  there  were  costermongers' 
wagons,  dirt  carts,  and  even  coaches  backed  up  and  receiving 
the  goods,  and  a  villainous  crowd  of  men  and  boys  chaffing  each 
other  and  tearing  open  parcels  to  discover  the  nature  of  their 
contents.  I  reached  the  St.  James  between  two  and  three  o'clock 
on  Monday  morning.  It  was  reported  to  be  on  fire,  but  I  did 
not  see  the  flames  then.  Mrs.  Frear  had  been  moved  in  an 
insensible  state  to  the  house  of  a  friend  on  the  north  side.  I 
could  learn  no  other  particulars. 

"The  house  was  in  a  dreadful  state  of  disorder.  Women 
and  children  were  screaming  in  every  direction,  and  baggago 
being  thrown  about  in  the  most  reckless  manner.  I  now  con- 
cluded that  Mrs.  Frear's  children  had  been  lost.  It  was  re- 
ported that  hundreds  of  people  had  perished  in  the  flames. 

"  There  was  a  crowd  of  men  and  women  at  the  hotel  from 
one  of  the  large  boarding-houses  in  the  neighborhood  of  State 
and  Adams  Streets,  and  they  said  they  barely  escaped  with  their 


JACKSON  STREET. 


FIELD  A  LETTER'S  STORE. 


COR.  LASALLE  AND  WASHINGTON  STREETS. 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  241 

lives,  leaving  every  thing  behind.  At  this  time  it  seemed  to  me 
that  the  fire  would  leave  nothing.  People  coming  in  said  the 
Sherman  House  was  going,  and  that  the  Opera-house  had  caught. 
Finally  word  was  brought  that  the  bridges  were  burning,  and 
all  escape  was  cut  off  to  the  north  and  west.  Then  ensued  a 
snene  which  was  beyond  description.  Men  shouted  the  news, 
and  added  to  the  panic.  Women,  half-dressed,  and  many  of 
tuem  with  screaming  children,  fled  out  of  the  building.  There 
was  a  jam  in  the  doorway,  and  they  struck  and  clawed  each 
other  as  if  in  self-defense.  I  lost  sight  of  my  nephew  at  this 
time.  Getting  out  with  the  crowd,  I  started  and  ran  round  to- 
ward the  Tremont  House.  Reaching  Dearborn  Street,  the  gust 
of  fire  was  so  strong  that  I  could  hardly  keep  my  feet. 

"  I  ran  on  down  toward  the  Tremont.  Here  the  same  scene 
was  being  enacted  with  tenfold  violence.  The  elevator  had  got 
jammed,  and  the  screams  of  the  women  on  the  upper  floors  was 
heart-rending.  I  forced  my  way  upstairs,  seeing  no  fire,  and 
looked  into  all  the  open  rooms,  calling  aloud  the  names  of  Mrs. 
Frear's  daughters.  Women  were  swarming  in  the  parlors;  in- 
valids, brought  there  for  safety,  were  lying  upon  the  floor. 
Others  were  running  distracted  about,  calling  upon  their  hus- 
bands. Men,  pale  and  awe-struck  and  silent,  looked  on  with- 
out any  means  of  averting  the  mischief.  All  this  time  the  upper 
part  of  the  house  was  on  fire.  The  street  was  choked  with  peo- 
ple, yelling  and  moaning  with  excitement  and  fright.  I  looked 
down  upon  them  from  an  upper  window  a  moment,  and  saw  far 
up  Dearborn  Street  the  huge  flames  pouring  in  from  the  side- 
Btreets  I  had  traversed  but  an  hour  ago,  and  it  appeared  to  me 
that  they  were  impelled  with  the  force  of  a  tremendous  blow- 
pipe. Every  thing  that  they  touched  melted.  Presently  the 
smoke  began  to  roll  down  the  stairways,  and  almost  immedi- 
21 


242  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION'. 

• 

ately  after  the  men  who  had  been  at  work  on  the  roof  came 
running  down.  They  made  no  outcry,  but  hurried  from  the 
house  as  if  for  their  lives.  I  went  up  to  the  fourth  story,  look- 
ing into  every  room,  and  kicking  open  those  that  were  locked. 
There  were  several  other  men  searching  in  the  same  manner, 
but  I  did  not  notice  them.  "While  up  here  I  obtained  a  view 
of  the  conflagration.  It  was  advancing  steadily  upon  the  hotel 
from  two  or  three  points.  There  was  very  little  smoke;  it  burned 
too  rapidly,  or  what  there  was  must  have  been  carried  away 
on  the  wind.  The  whole  was  accompanied  by  a  crackling 
noise  as  of  an  enormous  bundle  of  dry  twigs  burning,  and  by 
explosions  that  followed  each  other  in  quick  succession  on  all 
sides. 

"  From  the  street-entrance  I  could  see  up  Dearborn  Street  as 
far  as  the  Portland  Block,  and  it  was  full  of  people  all  the  dis- 
tance, swaying  and  surging  under  the  reign  of  fire.  Around 
on  Lake  Street  the  tumult  was  worse.  Here  for  the  first  time 
I  beheld  scenes  of  violence  that  made  my  blood  boil.  In  front 
of  Shay's  magnificent  dry  goods  store  a  man  loaded  a  store- 
truck  with  silks  in  defiance  of  the  employes  of  the  place. 
When  he  had  piled  all  he  could  upon  the  truck,  some  one  with 
a  revolver  shouted  to  him  not  to  drive  away  or  he  would  fire 
at  him,  to  which  he  replied,  'Fire,  and  be  damned!'  and  the 
man  put  the  pistol  in  his  pocket  again.  Just  east  of  this  store 
there  was  at  least  a  ton  of  fancy  goods  thrown  into  the  street, 
over  which  the  people  and  vehicles  passed  with  utter  indiffer- 
ence, until  they  took  fire.  I  saw  myself,  a  ragamuffin  on  the 
Clark-street  bridge,  who  had  been  killed  by  a  marble  slab 
thrown  from  a  window,  with  white  kid  gloves  on  his  hands ; 
and  whose  pockets  were  stuffed  with  gold-plated  sleeve-buttons, 
and  on  that  same  bridge  I  saw  an  Irish  woman  leading  a  goat 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  243 

that  was  big  with  young,  by  one  arm,  while  under  the  other  she 
carried  a  piece  of  silk. 

"  Lake  Street  was  rich  with  treasure,  and  hordes  of  thieves 
forced  their  way  into  the  stores  and  flung  out  the  merchandise 
to  their  fellows  in  the  street,  who  received  it  without  disguise, 
and  fought  over  it  openly.  I  went  through  the  street  to  Wabash 
A  venue,  and  here  the  thoroughfare  was  utterly  choked  with  all 
manner  of  goods  and  people.  Every  body  who  had  been  forced 
from  the  other  end  of  the  town  by  the  advancing  flames  had 
brought  some  article  with  him,  and,  as  further  progress  was 
delayed,  if  not  completely  stopped  by  the  river — the  bridges  of 
which  were  also  choked — most  of  them,  in  their  panic,  aban- 
doned their  burdens,  so  that  the  street  and  sidewalks  presented 
the  most  astonishing  wreck.  Valuable  oil-paintings,  books,  pet 
animals,  musical  instruments,  toys,  mirrors,  and  bedding,  were 
trampled  under  foot.  Added  to  this,  the  goods  from  the  stores 
had  been  hauled  out  and  had  taken  fire,  and  the  crowd,  break- 
ing into  a  liquor  establishment,  were  yelling  with  the  fury  of 
demons,  as  they  brandished  champagne  and  brandy  bottles. 
The  brutality  and  horror  of  the  scene  made  it  sickening.  A 
fellow,  standing  on  a  piano,  declared  that  the  fire  was  the  frieua 
of  the  poor  man.  He  wanted  every  body  to  help  himself  to  the 
best  liquor  he  could  get,  and  continued  to  yell  from  the  piano 
until  some  one,  as  drunk  as  himself,  flung  a  bottle  at  him  and 
knocked  him  off  it.  In  this  chaos  were  hundreds  of  children, 
wailing  and  crying  for  their  parents.  One  little  girl,  in  par- 
ticular, I  saw,  whose  golden  hair  was  loose  down  her  back  and 
caught  fire.  She  ran  screaming  past  me,  and  somebody  threw 
a  glass  of  liquor  upon  her,  which  flared  up  and  covered  her 
with  a  blue  flame.  It  was  impossible  to  get  through  to  the 
bridge,  and  I  was  forced  to  go  buck  toward  Randolph  Street. 


244  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

There  was  a  strange  and  new  fascination  in  the  scenes  that  I 
could  not  resist. 

"  It  was  now  daylight,  and  the  fire  was  raging  closely  all 
about  me.  The  Court-house,  the  Sherman  House,  the  Tremont 
House,  and  the  wholesale  stores  on  Wabash  Avenue,  and  the 
retail  stores  on  Lake  Street,  were  burning.  The  cries  of  the 
multitude  on  the  latter  streets  had  now  risen  into  a  terrible 
roar,  for  the  flames  were  breaking  into  the  river  streets.  I  saw 
the  stores  of  Messrs.  Drake,  Hamlin,  and  Farwell  burn.  They 
ignited  suddenly  all  over  in  a  manner  entirely  new  to  me,  just  as 
I  have  seen  paper  do  that  is  held  to  the  fire  until  it  is  scorched 
and  breaks  out  in  a  flame.  The  crowds  who  were  watching 
them  greeted  the  combustion  with  terrible  yells.  In  one  of  the 
stores — I  think  it  was  Hamlin's — there  were  a  number  of  men 
at  the  time  on  the  several  floors  passing  out  goods,  and  when 
the  flames  blown  over  against  it  enveloped  the  building,  they 
were  lost  to  sight  entirely;  nor  did  I  see  any  effort  whatever 
made  to  save  them,  for  the  heat  was  so  intense  that  every  body 
was  driven  as  before  a  tornado  from  the  vicinity  of  the  build- 
ings. I  now  found  myself  carried  by  the  throng  back  to  near 
Twake  Street,  and  determined,  if  possible,  to  get  over  the  river. 
I  managed  to  accomplish  this,  after  a  severe  struggle  and  at  the 
risk  of  my  life.  The  rail  of  the  bridge  was  broken  away,  and 
a  number  of  small  boats  loaded  with  goods  were  passing  down 
the  stream.  How  many  people  were  pushed  over  the  bridge 
into  the  water  I  can  not  tell.  I  myself  saw  one  man  stumble 
under  a  load  of  clothing  and  disappear;  nor  did  the  occupants 
of  the  boats  pay  the  slightest  attention  to  him  nor  to  the  crowd 
overhead,  except  to  guard  against  any  body  falling  into  their 
vessels." 

From  the  north  side,  Mr.  Frear  made  his  way  to  the  west 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  245 

side,  where  he  fell  down  and  slept  in  the  hall  of  his  brother's 
house;  but  was  aroused  in  half  an  hour  to  join  in  another  res- 
cue of  Mrs.  Frear,  whose  refuge  on  the  north  side  was  about  to 
be  burned.  This  accomplished,  just  in  time  to  save  the  lady 
from  the  flames,  Mr.  Frear  and  the  friend  who  had  told  him 
of  her  whereabouts  hauled  her,  shrieking  with  hysterics,  in  a 
baker's  wagon,  some  four  miles,  over  much  debris,  to  the  home 
where  she  ought  to  have  staid  in  the  first  place.  Her  property, 
including  the  jewelry,  money,  and  relics,  were  all  gone;  but  the 
children  were  soon  heard  from.  They  were  safe  at  the  River- 
side suburb. 


CHAPTER   V. 

PERSONAL   EXPEKIENCES — CONTINUED. 

Narrative  of  Horace  White,  Esq. — How  the  "  bloated  aristocrats  "  took  it— 
A  parrot  equal  to  the  emergency — Sheridan  in  the  fray — The  gunpow- 
der cure. 

A  MONG  the  severest  sufferers  by  the  general  calamity  was 
-^-*-  Horace  White,  Esq.,  editor  of  the  Tribune,  who  lost,  be- 
sides other  property,  his  elegant  home  on  Michigan  Avenue, 
containing  a  remarkably  select  and  scholarly  library,  for  which 
he  would  not  have  taken  $25,000.  Mr.  White,  on  discovering 
that  the  fire  was  one  of  unusual  magnitude,  arose  from  his  bed 
for  the  purpose  of  going  to  the  Tribune  office  and  writing  an 
editorial  paragraph — perhaps  advising  every  body  to  build  ab- 
solutely fire-proof  edifices  like  the  Tribune  building.  He  thus 
describes  the  scene  which  met  him  as  he  passed  out  upon  the 
street : 

"Billows  of  fire  were  rolling  over  the  business  palaces  of  the 
city  and  swallowing  up  their  contents.  Walls  were  falling  so 
fast  that  the  quaking  of  the  ground  under  our  feet  was  scarcely 
noticed,  so  continuous  was  the  reverberation.  Sober  men  and 
women  were  hurrying  through  the  streets,  from  the  burning 
quarter,  some  with  bundles  of  clothing  on  their  shoulders,  others 
dragging  trunks  along  the  sidewalks  by  means  of  strings  and 
ropes  fastened  to  the  handles,  children  trudging  by  their  sides 
(246) 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  217 

or  borne  in  their  arms.  Now  and  then  a  sick  man  or  woman 
would  be  observed,  half  concealed  in  a  mattress  doubled  up  aud 
borne  by  two  men.  Droves  of  horses  were  in  the  streets,  mov- 
ing under  some  sort  of  guidance  to  a  place  of  safety.  Vehicles 
of  all  descriptions  were  hurrying  to  and  fro,  some  laden  with 
trunks  and  bundles,  and  others  seeking  similar  loads  and  im- 
mediately finding  them,  the  drivers  making  more  money  in  one 
hour  than  they  were  used  to  see  in  a  week  or  a  month.  Every 
body  in  this  quarter  was  hurrying  toward  the  lake-shore.  All 
the  streets  crossing  that  part  of  Michigan  Avenue  which  fronts 
on  the  lake  (on  which  my  own  residence  stood)  were  crowded 
with  fugitives,  hastening  toward  the  blessed  water." 

After  a  season  at  the  office  of  the  Tribune,  during  which  the 
editorial  was  written  (but  never  printed),  Mr.  White  went  home 
to  breakfast,  noticing  as  he  went  that  the  employes  of  Messrs. 
Field,  Leiter  &  Co.'s  immense  dry  goods  store  were  showering 
that  massive  pile  of  pure  marble  and  iron  with  water  from 
their  own  pumping  engines.  He  felt  sure  that  that  building, 
as  well  as  the  Tribune,  First  National  Bank,  and  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Depot,  would,  with  every  thing  to  the  east  of  them, 
be  reserved  from  the  destruction  of  the  flames.  This  was,  per- 
haps, a  good  calculation,  from  his  point  of  view;  but  he  would 
not  have  made  it  if  he  could,  from  a  balloon,  or  from  a  high 
vantage  point  to  the  south-west,  have  marked  the  general 
course  and  scanned  the  mighty  plan  (as  it  seemed)  of  the  de- 
vastating monster.  Mr.  White's  narrative  continues: 

"There  was  still  a  mass  of  fire  to  the  south-west,  in  the 
direction  whence  it  originally  came,  but  as  the  engines  were  all 
down  there,  and  the  buildings  small  and  low,  I  felt  sure  that  the 
firemen  would  manage  it.  As  soon  as  I  had  swallowed  a  cup 
of  coffee  and  communicated  to  my  family  the  facts  that  I  had 


248  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

gathered.,  I  started  out  to  see  the  end  of  the  battle.  Reaching 
State  Street  I  glanced  down  to  Field,  Leiter  &  Co.'s  store,  and 
to  ray  surprise  noticed  that  the  streams  of  water  which  had 
before  been  showering  it  as  though  it  had  been  a  great  arti- 
ficial fountain,  had  ceased  to  run.  But  I  did  not  conjecture 
the  awful  reality,  viz:  that  the  great  pumping  engines  had  been 
disabled  by  a  burning  roof  falling  upon  them.  I  thought  that 
perhaps  the  firemen  on  the  store  had  discontinued  their  efforts 
because  the  danger  was  over.  But  why  were  men  carrying  out 
goods  from  the  lower  story  ? 

"This  query  was  soon  answered  by  a  gentleman  who  asked 
me  if  I  had  heard  that  the  water  had  stopped?  The  awful 
truth  was  here!  The  pumping  engines  were  disabled,  and 
though  we  had  at  our  feet  a  basin  sixty  miles  wide  by  three 
hundred  and  sixty  long,  and  seven  hundred  feet  deep,  all  full 
of  clear  green  water,  we  could  not  lift  enough  to  quench  a 
cooking-stove.  Still  the  direction  of  the  wind  was  such  that  I 
thought  the  remaining  fire  would  not  cross  State  Street,  nor 
reach  the  residences  on  Wabash  and  Michigan  Avenues  and 
the  terrified  people  on  the  lake-shore.  I  determined  to  go  down 
to  the  black  cloud  of  smoke  which  was  rising  away  to  the  south- 
west, the  course  of  which  could  not  be  discovered  on  account 
of  thehight  of  the  intervening  buildings,  but  thought  it  most 
prudent  to  go  home  again  and  tell  my  wife  to  get  the  family 
wearing  apparel  in  readiness  for  moving.  I  found  that  she  had 
already  clone  so. 

"  I  then  hurried  toward  the  black  cloud,  some  ten  squares 
distant,  and  there  found  the  rows  of  wooden  houses  on  Third 
and  Fourth  Avenues  falling  like  ripe  wheat  before  a  reaper. 
At  a  glance  I  perceived  that  all  was  lost  in  our  quarter  of  the 
city,  and  I  conjectured  that  the  Tribune  Building  was  doomed 


PERSONAL  EXPERIENCES.  249 

too,  for  I  had  noticed  with  consternation  that  the  fire-proof 
post-office  had  been  completely  gutted,  notwithstanding  it  was 
detached  from  other  buildings.  The  Tribune  was  fitted  into  a 
niche,  one  side  of  which  consisted  of  a  wholesale  stationery 
store,  and  the  other  of  McVicker*s  Theater.  But  there  was  now 
no  time  to  think  of  property.  Life  was  in  danger.  The  lives 
of  those  most  dear  to  me  depended  upon  their  getting  out  of  our 
house,  out  of  our  street,  through  an  infernal  gorge  of  horses, 
wagons,  men,  women,  children,  trunks,  and  plunder. 

"My  brother  was  with  me,  and  we  seized  the  first  empty 
wagon  we  could  find,  pinning  the  horse  by  the  head.  A  hasty 
talk  with  the  driver  disclosed  that  we  could  have  his  establish- 
ment for  one  load  for  twenty  dollars.  I  had  not  expected  to 
get  him  for  less  than  a  hundred,  unless  we  should  take  him  by 
force,  and  this  was  a  bad  time  for  a  fight.  He  approved  him- 
self a  muscular  as  well  as  a  faithful  fellow,  and  I  shall  always 
be  glad  that  I  avoided  a  personal  difficulty  with  him.  One 
peculiarity  of  the  situation  was  that  nobody  could  get  a  team 
without  ready  money.  I  had  not  thought  of  this  when  I  was 
revolving  in  my  mind  an  ofier  of  one  hundred  dollars,  which 
was  more  greenbacks  than  our  whole  family  could  put  up  if  our 
lives  had  depended  on  the  issue.  This  driver  had  divined  that 
as  all  the  banks  were  burned,  a  check  on  the  Commercial  Na- 
tional would  not  carry  him  very  far,  even  though  it  should  carry 
me  to  a  place  of  saiUty.  All  the  drivers  had  divined  the  same. 
Every  man  who  had  any  thing  to  sell  had  perceived  the  same. 
'Pay  as  you  go'  had  become  the  watchword  of  the  hour. 
Never  was  there  a  community  so  hastily  and  completely  eman- 
cipated from  the  evils  of  the  credit  system." 

A  quantity  of  trunks,  etc.,  was  thrown  into  the  wagon,  and 
Mr.  White,  taking  in  his  hand  a  cage  containing  what  he  calls 


250  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

"a  talented  parrot" — the  family  pet — left  his  brother  and  wife  to 
prepare  the  next  load,  and  started  off  for  a  friend's  house,  half 
a  mile  to  the  southward.  They  were  an  hour  or  more  on  the 
way,  owing  to  the  jam,  and  were  at  one  time  deterred  by  a 
howling  German,  who  declared  that  he  had  lost  every  thing, 
and  others  ought  to  do  the  same. 

"Presently,"  Mr.  White  continues,  "the  jam  began  to  move, 
and  we  got  on  perhaps  twenty  paces  and  stuck  fast  again.  By 
accident  we  had  edged  over  to  the  east  side  of  the  street,  and 
nothing  but  a  board  fence  separated  us  from  Lake  Park,  a  strip 
of  made  ground  a  little  wider  than  the  street  itself.  A  benevo- 
lent laborer,  on  the  park  side  of  the  fence,  pulled  a  loose  post 
out  of  the  ground,  and  with  this  for  a  catapult,  knocked  off  the 
boards  and  invited  us  to  pass  through.  It  was  a  hazardous 
undertaking,  as  we  had  to  drive  diagonally  over  a  raised  side- 
walk, but  we  thought  it  was  best  to  risk  it.  Our  horse  mounted, 
and  gave  us  a  jerk  which  nearly  threw  us  off  the  seat,  and  sent 
the  provision  basket  and  one  bundle  of  clothing  whirling  into 
the  dirt.  The  eatables  were  irrecoverable.  The  bundle  was 
rescued,  with  two  or  three  pounds  of  butter  plastered  upon  it. 
We  started  again,  and  here  our  parrot  broke  out,  with  great 
rapidity  and  sharpness  of  utterance,  'Get  up,  get  up,  get  up, 
hurry  up,  hurry  up,  it's  eight  o'clock,'  ending  with  a  shrill 
whistle.  These  ejaculations  frightened  a  pair  of  horses  close  to 
us,  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence,  but  the  jam  was  so  tight  that 
they  could  n't  run. 

"By  getting  into  the  park  we  succeeded  in  advancing  two 
squares  without  impediment,  and  might  have  gone  farther  had 
we  not  come  upon  an  excavation  which  the  public  authorities 
had  recently  made.  This  drove  us  back  to  the  avenue,  where 
another  battering-ram  made  a  gap  for  us,  at  the  intersection  of 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  251 

Van  Buren  Street,  the  north  end  of  Michigan  Terrace.  Here 
the  gorge  seemed  impassable.  We  were  half  an  hour  in  passing 
the  terrace.  From  this  imposing  row  of  residences  the  mil- 
lionaires were  dragging  their  trunks  and  their  bundles,  and  yet 
there  was  no  panic,  no  frenzy,  no  boisterousness,  but  only  the 
haste  which  the  situation  authorized.  .  .  .  Arriving  at 
Eldridge  Court,  I  turned  into  Wabash  Avenue,  where  the  crowd 
was  thinner.  Arriving  at  the  house  of  a  friend,  who  was  on 
the  windward  side  of  the  fire,  I  tumbled  off  ray  load  and  started 
back  to  get  another.  Half  way  down  Michigan  Avenue,  which 
was  now  perceptibly  easier  to  move  in,  I  discovered  my  family 
on  the  sidewalk,  with  their  arms  full  of  light  household  effects. 
My  wife  told  me  that  the  house  was  already  burned,  that  the 
flames  burst  out  ready-made  in  the  rear  hall  before  she  knew 
that  the  roof  had  been  scorched,  and  that  one  of  the  servants, 
who  had  disobeyed  orders  in  her  eagerness  to  save  some  article, 
had  got  singed,  though  not  burned,  in  coming  out.  My  wife 
and  mother  and  all  the  rest  were  begrimed  with  dirt  and  smoke, 
like  blackamoors — every  body  was.  The  f  bloated  aristocrats' 
all  along  the  street,  who  supposed  they  had  lost  both  home 
and  fortune  at  one  swoop,  were  a  sorry  but  not  despairing  con- 
gregation. They  had  saved  their  lives  at  all  events,  and  they 
knew  that  many  of  their  fellow-creatures  must  have  lost  theirs. 
I  saw  a  great  many  kindly  acts  done  as  we  moved  along.  The 
poor  helped  the  rich,  and  the  rich  helped  the  poor  (if  any  body 
could  be  called  rich  at  such  a  time)  to  get  on  with  their  loads. 

•  •••••• 

"Presently  we  heard  loud  detonations,  and  a  rumor  went 
around  that  buildings  were  being  blown  up  with  gunpowder. 
The  depot  of  the  Hazard  Powder  Company  was  situated  at 
Brighton,  seven  or  eight  miles  from  the  nearest  point  of  the  fire. 


252  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

At  what  time  the  effort  was  first  made  to  reach  this  magazine, 
and  bring  powder  into  the  service,  I  have  not  learned,  but  1 
know  that  Colonel  M.  C.  Stearns  made  heroic  efforts  with  his 
great  lime  wagons  to  haul  the  explosive  material  to  the  proper 
point.  This  is  no  time  to  blame  any  body,  but  in  truth  there 
was  no  directing  head  on  the  ground.  Every  body  was  ask- 
ing every  body  else  to  pull  down  buildings.  There  were  no 
hooks,  no  ropes,  no  axes. 

"  I  had  met  General  Sheridan  on  the  street  in  front  of  the 
post-office  two  hours  before.  He  had  been  trying  to  save  the 
army  records,  including  his  own  invaluable  papers  relating  to 
the  war  of  the  rebellion.  He  told  me  that  they  were  "all  lost, 
and  then  added  that  the  post-office  did  n't  seem  to  make  a  good 
fire.  This  was  when  we  supposed  the  row  of  fire-proof  build- 
ings, already  spoken  of,  had  stopped  the  flames  in  our  quarter. 
Where  was  General  Sheridan  now?  every  body  asked.  Why 
did  n't  he  do  something  when  every  body  else  had  failed  ? 
Presently  a  rumor  went  around  that  Sheridan  was  handling 
the  gunpowder;  then  every  body  felt  relieved.  The  reverbera- 
tions of  the  powder,  whoever  was  handling  it,  gave  us  all  heart 
again.  Think  of  a  people  feeling  encouraged  by  the  fact  that 
somebody  was  blowing  up  houses  in  the  midst  of  the  city,  and 
that  a  shower  of  bricks  was  very  likely  to  come  down  on  their 
heads." 

The  experience  of  Mr.  White  and  his  family  is  perhaps  the 
average  one  of  the  wealthier  classes  of  the  South  Division. 
That  of  the  same  classes  in  the  North  Division  (represented  in 
the  narrative  of  Mr.  Arnold,  contained  in  the  next  chapter) 
was  much  rougher,  from  which  may  be  deduced  an  inference 
as  to  that  of  the  fifty  times  more  numerous  poor  families,  who 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  253 

had  no  twenty  dollars  to  give  to  an  exceptionally  liberal  cart- 
man,  no  sympathizing  friends  down  the  avenue  to  afford  them 
shelter  and  other  comforts,  and  generally  no  hour's  or  even  a 
half  hour's  time  in  which  to  calculate  upon  the  means  of  escape 
from  the  devouring  element. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES — CONTINUED. 

Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold  defends  his  castle — A  vain  contest — Overpowered  and 
routed — Running  the  fire  blockade. 

AMONG  the  many  beautiful  homes  destroyed  in  the  North 
Division  of  the  city,  few,  if  any,  were  at  once  more  ele- 
gant and  home-like  than  that  of  the  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 
the  friend  and  biographer  of  Lincoln.  The  house  was  a  large, 
plain,  brick  mansion,  occupying  with  its  grounds  the  whole 
block  bounded  by  Erie,  Huron,  Pine,  and  Rush  Streets.  The 
grounds  were  filled  with  the  most  beautiful  shrubbery  and  trees, 
and  entirely  secluded  by  a  very  luxuriant  lilac  hedge.  Perhaps 
the  most  noticeable  feature  was  the  vines  of  wild  grape,  Virginia 
creeper,  and  bitter-sweet,  whicli  hung  in  graceful  festoons  from 
the  massive  elms,  and  covered  with  their  dense  foliage  piazzas 
and  summer-houses.  There  was  a  simple  but  quaint  fountain, 
playing  in  front,  beneath  a  perfect  bower  of  overhanging  vines. 
A  great  rock,  upon  which  had  been  rudely  carved  the  features 
of  an  Indian  chief,  had  been  pierced,  and  through  this  a  way 
had  been  made  for  the  water,  and  over  the  head  of  the  old  chief 
the  water  of  Lake  Michigan  was  always  throwing  its  spray. 
On  one  side  of  the  entrance  was  a  little  greenhouse,  always  gay 
with  flowers.  Two  vineries  of  choice  varieties  of  foreign  grapes, 


PERSONAL    EXPERIENCES.  255 

and  a  large  greenhouse  and  bam,  constituted  the  out-buildings. 
On  the  lawn  was  a  sun-dial  with  the  insciiption: 

"  Horas  non  numero  nisi  serenas."  * 

Alas!  the  tablet  vindicated  its  motto  but  too  well.  It  was 
broken  by  the  heat  or  in  the  melee  which  accompanied  the  fire, 
and  the  dark  hours  which  have  followed  pass  by  without  its 
reckoning. 

But  pleasant  as  was  the  outside,  it  was  the  interior  wherein 
its  great  attractions  lay;  and  the  chief  of  these  was  the  library. 
Here  were  the  collections  of  the  lifetime  of  a  man  of  taste, 
wealth,  and  culture — a  law  library  and  a  miscellaneous  library 
of  seven  or  eight  thousand  volumes.  Many  of  the  books  were 
specialties,  and  the  objects  of  pride  and  affection.  Among  them 
were  the  speeches  of  Burke,  Sheridan,  Fox,  Pitt,  Erskine,  Cur- 
ran,  Brougham,  Webster,  Wirt,  Seward,  Sumner,  etc.,  all  su- 
perbly bound ;  a  pretty  full  collection  of  English  literature  and 
history;  the  Abbotsford  edition  of  Scott's  novels,  in  full  Russia 
binding;  Pickering  and  Bacon,  in  tree  calf;  a  full  set  of  the 
British  poets;  all  of  Bonn's  libraries,  etc.  In  American  liter- 
ature and  history  the  library  was  rich,  including  beautiful  edi- 
tions of  the  works  of  Cooper,  Irving,  Paulding,  Willis,  Bryant, 
Longfellow,  Prescott,  Holmes,  the  writings  of  Washington,  Mad- 
ison, Jefferson,  Hamilton,  Marshall,  Story,  Bancroft,  and  others. 

Mr.  Arnold  had  a  very  complete  collection  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  Congress  and  the  debates,  from  the  organization  of  the 
Government  down  to  the  present  day.  In  his  library  also  was 
j>erhaps  as  full  a  collection  of  the  books  and  pamphlets  in  rela- 
tion to  slavery,  the  rebellion,  the  war,  and  President  Lincoln,  as 

*  "I  number  none  bat  sunny  hours." 


256  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

existed  in  any  private  hands.  He  had  also  ten  large  volumes 
of  manuscript  letters,  written  by  distinguished  military  and  oivil 
characters  during  and  since  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  including 
many  from  Lincoln,  McClellau,  Grant,  Farragut,  Sherman,  Hal- 
leek,  Seward,  Sumner,  Chase,  Colfax,  and  others,  of  great  per- 
sonal and  historic  interest. 

For  the  last  ten  years,  Mr.  Arnold  had  been  collecting  the 
speeches,  writings,  and  letters  of  Lincoln  for  publication,  and 
had  many  volumes  of  manuscripts  and  letters,  the  material  for  a 
strictly  biographical  work  upon  Abraham  Lincoln,  several  chap- 
ters of  which  were  ready  for  publication.  These,  with  many  rare 
and  curious  relics,  prints,  and  engravings,  have  all  perished. 

The  pictures  were  not  numerous,  but  of  very  decided  merit. 
There  were  landscapes  by  Kensett,  Brown,  and  Mignot;  fam- 
ily portraits  by  Healy ;  the  original  study  of  Webster's  reply  to 
Hayne,  now  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  in  which  were  forty  por- 
traits of  distinguished  Americans,  many  of  them  from  life;  a 
portrait  of  Webster,  by  Chester  Harding,  etc. 

The  failure  of  Mr.  Arnold  to  save  any  thing,  was  the  result 
of  a  most  determined  effort  to  save  every  thing,  and  his  too 
confident  belief  that  he  could  succeed.  Nor  did  this  confidence 
seem  to  be  unreasonable.  His  house,  standing  in  the  center  of 
an  open  block,  with  a  wide  street  and  the  Newberry  block,  with 
only  one  house,  in  front,  and  the  Ogden  block,  with  only  one 
house,  to  the  right,  directly  in  the  pathway  of  the  flames,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  he  believed  he  could  save  his  house.  Be- 
sides, he  had  connections  by  hose  with  hydrants,  both  in  front 
and  rear  of  his  house.  Mrs.  Arnold  had  placed  what  proved 
a  better  estimate  upon  the  danger;  and,  calling  up  the  family, 
and  dressing  little  Alice,  a  child  of  eight  years,  she  left  the 
house  and  went  to  her  daughter's  (Mrs.  Scudder),  leaving  Mr. 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  257 

A.  and  the  remainder  of  the  family — consisting  of  an  older 
daughter,  a  lad  of  thirteen,  a  school-girl  of  fifteen,  and  the 
servants — to  fight  the  battle  with  the  flames. 

There  was  a  sea  of  fire  to  the  south  and  south-west;  the 
wind  Mew  a  perfect  gale,  carrying  smoke  and  sparks,  shingles, 
pieces  of  lumber  and  roof,  directly  over  the  house.  Every 
thing  was  parched  and  dry  as  tinder.  The  leaves  from  the 
trees  and  shrubbery  covered  the  ground.  Mr.  A.  turned  on 
the  water  to  the  fountains,  to  wet  the  ground  and  grass,  and 
attached  the  hose  to  the  hydrants.  He  stationed  the  servants 
on  each  side  of  the  house,  and  others  on  the  piazzas,  and  for  an 
hour  and  a  half — perhaps  two  hours — was  able,  by  the  utmost 
vigilance  and  exertion,  to  extinguish  the  flames  as  often  as  they 
caught.  During  all  this  time  the  fire  was  falling  in  torrents. 
There  was  literally  a  rain  of  fire.  It  caught  in  the  dry  leaves; 
it  caught  in  the  grass,  in  the  barn,  in  the  piazzas,  and  as  often 
as  it  caught  it  was  extinguished  before  it  got  any  headway. 
When  the  barn  first  caught,  the  horses  and  the  cow  were  re- 
moved to  the  lawn.  The  fight  was  successfully  maintained 
until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Every  moment  flakes  of 
fire,falling  upon  dry  wood,  would  be  kindled  by  the  high  wind 
into  a  rapid  blaze,  and  the  next  instant  they  would  be  extin- 
guished. Every  moment  the  contest  grew  warmer  and  more 
desperate,  until,  by  three  o'clock,  the  defenders  of  the  castle 
were  becoming  seriously  exhausted.  At  the  hour  mentioned, 
young  Arthur  Arnold  called  to  his  father,  "The  barn  and  hay 
are  on  fire!"  "The  leaves  are  on  fire  on  the  east  side!"  said 
the  gardener.  "The  front  piazza  is  in  a  blaze! "cried  another. 
"The  front  greenhouse  is  in  flames!"  "The  roof  is  on  fire!" 
"The  waffr  has  stopped!"  was  the  last  appalling  announcement. 
"  Now,  for  the  first  time,"  said  Mr.  A.,  "  I  gave  up  all  hope  of 
22 


258  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

saving  my  home,  and  considered  whether  we  could  save  any 
of  its  contents.  My  pictures,  papers,  and  books — could  I  save 
them?" 

An  effort  was  made  to  cut  down  some  portraits — a  landscape 
of  Kensett— Otsego  Lake,  by  Mignot — it  was  too  late!  Seizing 
a  bundle  of  papers,  Mr.  Arnold  gathered  the  children  and  serv- 
ants together,  and,  leading  the  terrified  animals,  they  went  forth 
from  their  so  dearly-cherished  home.  But  whither?  They  were 
surrounded  by  fire  on  three  sides;  to  the  south,  west,  and  north 
raged  the  flames,  making  a  wall  of  fire  and  smoke  from  the 
ground  to  the  sky.  Their  only  escape  was  eastward  to  the  lake- 
shore.  Still  leading  the  horses  and  cow,  they  went  onward  to 
the  beach.  Here  were  gathered  thousands  of  fugitives,  hemmed 
in  and  imprisoned  by  the  raging  element.  The  Sands,  from 
the  Government  Pier  north  to  Lill's  Pier,  a  distance  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile,  were  covered  with  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren— some  half-clad,  in  every  variety  of  dress,  with  the  mot- 
ley collection  of  effects  which  they  sought  to  save.  Some  had 
silver,  some  valuable  pnpers,  some  pictures,  carpets,  beds,  etc. 
One  little  child  had  her  doll  tenderly  pressed  in  her  arms;  an 
old  Irish  woman  was  cherishing  a  grunting  pig;  a  fat  woman 
had  two  large  pillows,  as  portly  as  herself.  There  was  a  singu- 
lar mixture  of  the  awful,  the  ludicrous,  and  the  pathetic. 

Reaching  the  water's  edge,  Mr.  A.  says  he  paused  to  exam- 
ine the  situation  and  determine  where  was  the  least  danger. 
South-west,  toward  the  river,  were  millions  of  feet  of  lumber, 
many  shanties  and  wooden  structures  yet  unburned,  but  which 
must  be  consumed  before  there  could  be  any  abatement  of  the  dan- 
ger. The  air  was  full  of  cinders  and  smoke ;  the  wind  blew  the 
heated  sand  worse  than  any  sirocco.  Where  was  a  place  of  refuge? 
W.  B.  Ogden  had  lately  constructed  a  long  pier  north  of  and 


PERSONAL,   EXPERIENCES.  259 

parallel  with  the  old  United  States  pier,  which  prolongs  the 
left  bank  of  the  river  out  into  the  lake,  and  this  had  been  filled 
with  stone,  but  had  not  been  planked  over ;  hence  it  would  not 
readily  bum.  It  was  a  hard  road  to  travel,  but  it  seemed  the 
safest  place,  and  Mr.  Arnold  and  his  children  worked  their  way- 
far  out  upon  this  pier.  With  much  difficulty  the  party  crossed 
from  the  Ogden  slip  in  a  small  row-boat  and  entered  the 
light-house,  where  they,  with  Judge  Goodrich,  Mr.  E.  I.  Tink- 
ham,  and  others,  were  hospitably  received. 

The  party  remained  prisoners  in  the  light-house  and  on  the 
pier  on  which  it  stood  for  several  hours.  The  shipping  in  the 
river  above  was  burning,  the  immense  grain  elevators  of  the 
Illinois  Central  and  North-western  Railroads  were  a  mass  of 
flames,  and  the  pier  itself,  some  distance  up  the  river,  was  slowly 
burning  toward  the  light-house.  A  large  propeller,  fastened  to 
the  dock  a  short  distance  up  the  river,  took  fire  and  burned. 
The  danger  was  that  as  soon  as  the  hawsers  by  which  it  was 
moored  should  be  burned  off,  it  would  float  down  stream  and 
set  fire  to  the  dock  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  light-house. 
Several  propellers  moved  down  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
took  on  board  several  hundred  fugitives  and  steamed  out  into 
the  lake.  If  the  burning  propeller  should  come  down  it  would 
set  fire  to  the  pier,  the  light-house,  and  vast  piles  of  lumber, 
which  had  escaped  in  consequence  of  being  directly  on  shore 
and  detached  from  the  burning  mass.  A  fire  company  was  or- 
ganized of  those  on  the  pier,  and  with  water  dipped  in  pails 
from  the  river,  the  fire  was  kept  at  bay.  But  all  felt  relieved 
when  the  propeller  went  to  the  bottom.  The  party  were  still 
prisoners  on  an  angle  of  sand,  and  the  fire  running  alon^  the 
north  shore  of  the  river.  The  river  and  the  fire  prevented  an 
escape  to  the  south.  West  and  north  the  flames  were  still  rag 


260  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

ing  with  unabated  fury.  The  party  waited  for  hours,  hoping 
the  fire  would  subside.  The  day  wore  on — noon  passed — one, 
two  o'clock,  and  still  it  seemed  impossible  to  escape  to  land. 
Mr.  Arnold,  scouting  to  the  northward,  found  his  gardener  right 
where  he  had  left  him,  sitting  upon  the  horse,  fur  out  in  the 
lake,  and  holding  on  faithfully  to  the  pony  by  its  halter,  and 
to  the  cow  by  her  horns.  The  escape  to  the  north  was  pro- 
nounced impracticable  for  the  ladies.  And  all  the  while  they 
were  in  great  danger  and  great  anxiety  concerning  the  fate  of 
the  missing  mother  and  child. 

Between  three  and  four  o'clock  P.  M.,  the  tug  "  Clifford  " 
steamed  down  the  river,  having  escaped  from  the  burning  dis- 
trict, and  tied  up  to  the  dock  near  the  light-house.  Could  she 
return,  taking  the  party  up  the  river,  through  and  Beyond  the 
fire  to  the  west  side?  The  captain  thought  he  could.  The 
bridges  at  Rush,  State,  Clark,  and  Wells  Streets  had  all  burned, 
and  their  fragments  had  fallen  into  the  river.  .The  great  ware- 
houses, stores,  elevators,  and  docks  along  the  river  were  still 
burning,  but  the  fury  of  the  fire  had  exhausted  itself.  The  party 
determined  to  go  through  this  narrow  channel — to  run  the  gaunt- 
let of  the  fire  to  a  point  outside  of  the  burnt  district.  This  was 
the  most  dangerous  experience  of  the  day.  The  tug  might  take 
fire  herself — her  woodwork  had  been  blistered  by  the  heat  as  she 
came  down.  The  engine  might  become  unmanageable  after  she 
got  inside  the  line  of  fire;  or  she  might  get  entangled  in  the 
floating  timbers  and  debris  of  the  fallen  bridges.  However, 
the  party  determined  to  make  the  attempt.  A  full  head  of 
steam  was  gotten  up,  the  hose  was  attached  to  the  pumps,  so 
that  if  the  boat  or  the  clothes  of  its  passengers  took  fire  they 
could  be  readily  put  out.  The  ladies  and  children  were  placed 
in  the  pilot-house,  the  windows  shut,  and  the  boat  started — the 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES.  261 

men  crouching  close  to  the  deck  in  the  shelter  of  the  bulwarks. 
At  the  State  Street  bridge  the  pilot  had  to  pick  his  way  very 
carefully  through  a  mass  of  debris,  and  the  situation  began  to 
look  exceedingly  hazardous.  But  it  was  too  late  to  turn  back, 
and  so  the  voyagers  pushed  on,  shooting  as  rapidly  as  possible 
past  th:  hottest  places,  and  slowing  where  the  danger  was  from 
below.  As  they  were  passing  State  Street  bridge  the  pumps 
gave  .>ut,  and  they  now  ran  great  risk  from  fire.  Arthur's  hat 
blew  away,  and  his  father  covered  his  face  and  head  with  a 
handkerchief  which  he  had  dipped  in  the  water.  Finally  they 
passed  the  Wells  Street  bridge,  and  were  still  unscathed. 

"Is  not  the  worst  over?"  asked  Mr.  Arnold  of  the  captain. 

"  We  are  through,  sir,"  was  the  answer. 

"  We  are  safe,  thank  God ! "  came  from  hearts  and  lips,  as  the 
boat  emerged  from  the  smoke  into  the  clear,  cool  air  outside  the 
fire  lines. 

Search  for  the  missing  ones  was  immediately  commenced. 
Mr.  Arnold  spent  over  twenty-four  hours  in  driving  and  wan- 
dering in  pursuit  of  his  wife — now  passing  among  the  throng 
of  refugees  at  Lincoln  Park  and  peering  into  every  grimy 
countenance — now  getting  a  clue,  whether  true  or  false,  and 
dashing  off  by  a  train  into  a  suburb — now  baffled  entirely  and 
compelled  to  commence  the  search  entirely  anew.  Some  time 
during  the  following  afternoon  his  efforts  were  rewarded  by 
learning  that  his  wife  and  child  were  at  the  house  of  Judge 
Drummond,  of  the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court,  at  a  suburb  called  Win- 
field  ;  and  there,  during  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  the  family 
were  reunited  and  joined  in  thanks  to  God  for  their  mutual  de- 
liverance. 

We  have  given  this  sketch  of  a  single  family's  experience  in 


262  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

this  terrible  ordeal,  not  because  it  is  more  thrilling  than  that 
of  thousands  of  other  families,  but  rather  because  it  is  a  speci- 
men of  the  whole,  and  because  Mr.  Arnold  is  well  known  in 
the  West.  There  were  many  homes  in  the  North  Division 
which,  like  this  one,  were  noted  for  their  exclusive  elegance — 
their  aristocratic  seclusion,  one  might  say — and  which  gave  the 
inhabitants  of  this  quarter  a  just  pride  in  their  locality.  The 
three  residences  mentioned  in  the  present  chapter — the  New- 
berry,  the  Ogden  (Wm.  B.),  and  the  Arnold  places,  with  the 
famous  McCagg  place,  on  North  Clark  Street,  and  one  or  two 
others,  occupied  territory  which  alone  was  worth  at  least  a 
quarter  of  a  million  to  each  place,  and  this  gave  the  proprietors 
some  such  prima  facie  title  to  aristocracy  as  landed  estates  do 
to  their  owners  in  England.  They  indicated  at  once  that  the 
occupant  must  possess  a  mine  of  wealth  in  the  form  of  stores 
over-town,  in  order  to  maintain  such  homesteads  in  the  face  of 
constant  offers  of  hundreds  of  dollars  per  foot  of  their  street 
front.  But  they  are  all  gone  now,  stores  and  giant  elms 
together!  Mr.  McCagg,  who  was  away  in  Europe  at  the  time, 
lost,  besides  his  mansion  and  its  contents,  which  included  many 
precious  paintings  and  a  library  of  rare  works,  one  of  his 
greenhouses,  the  finest  in  the  West.  Mr.  Perry  H.  Smith, 
the  well  known  railroad  manager  and  capitalist,  lost  a  library 
valued  at  $50,000,  and  noted  for  the  superb  bindings  of  its 
volumes,  many  of  which  Mr.  Smith  had  but  just  brought  from 
Europe. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE   NIGHT  AFTER  THE   FIRE. 

Flood  and  Same — A  hopeless  sortie — A  ghostly  bivouac — Separation  of  fam- 
ilies— Days  and  nights  of  suspense  and  anxiety — Nothing  to  eat 

T I  HIE  fire  raged  all  day  in  the  North  Division,  and  nightfall 
-•-  of  Monday  found  the  thousands  of  fugitives  in  the  places 
of  refuge  which  they  had  first  sought — the  oj>en  prairie  to  the 
north-west  of  the  city,  the  cemetery  and  Lincoln  Park  at  the 
north-east,  and  the  beach  and  piers  near  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
Those  in  the  last-named  localities  had  suffered  a  great  deal  dur- 
ing the  day  from  the  advancing  rigors  and  dangers  of  the  heat. 
They  were  pent  up  in  their  uncomfortable  prison  by  the  wall 
of  fire  which  still  presented  an  impassable  barrier.  At  times 
this  approached  so  close  as  to  drive  the  shrinking  refugees  far 
into  the  water,  where  they  could  keep  their  bodies  submerged 
and  their  heads  constantly  drenched,  as  their  only  protection 
against  the  scorching  air  and  shower  of  burning  brands.  This 
process  was  sometimes  very  dangerous,  however,. for  if  the  panic 
on  shore  should  become  too  great,  the  people  farthest  out  in  the 
lake — many  of  them  mothers  with  babes  in  their  arms — would 
be  forced  beyond  their  depth  and  drowned.  On  the  piers,  and 
on  the  shore  of  the  basin,  which  is  quite  abrupt,  this  danger 
was  very  serious,  especially  at  night;  and  it  was  reported  that 
a  number  were  drowned  from  this  cause. 

(263) 


264  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

On  the  Sands,  too,  there  were  great  numbers  of  animals,  which 
Lad  fled  or  been  taken  from  their  stables,  and  which  constantly 
threatened  to  trample  down  the  women  and  children,  and  greatly 
increased  their  terror. 

Nor  were  the  four-footed  beasts  the  only  brutes  that  congre- 
gated on  that  unhappy  beach.  There  were  many  of  the  vilest 
inhabitants  of  the  city  swarming  there  among  their  vermin- 
haunted  bedding,  which  they  had  tugged  in,  with  great  ado, 
and  they  were  storming  the  sensibilities  of  the  gentler  victims 
by  their  mingled  curses  and  carousals — for  they  had  saved 
astonishing  quantities  of  vile  whisky,  and  many  of  them  had 
become  beastly  drunk.  Others  were  at  the  fighting  stage,  and 
made  both  night  and  day  hideous  with  their  bowlings,  and 
threaten  ings,  and  obscene  utterances. 

During  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  the  fire  advancing  into  the 
collection  of  shanties  which  approaches  the  lake  along  the 
Sands,  a  sortie  was  organized  by  the  men,  with  water  in  hats 
and  all  manner  of  improvised  buckets,  in  the  hope  that  the 
progress  of  the  fiery  wave  might  be  stayed.  As  well  attempt 
to  beat  back,  with  a  puny  broom,  the  breakers  which  sometimes 
come  dashing  in  from  the  lake  with  almost  earthquake  force! 
The  poor  shanties  were  little  and  worthless  enough,  God  knows; 
but  the  appetite  of  the  flames  was  not  yet  appeased,  and  it  de- 
manded more.  Therefore  the  shanties  went  into  the  monster's 
maw,  along  with  all  the  noble  blocks  and  magnificent  homes 
that  had  gone  before;  and  the  men  retreated,  exhausted,  to  the 
brink  of  the  lake. 

Hunger  had,  by  this  time,  added  its  terrors  to  those  of  ex- 
posure, fear  of  death,  and  anxiety  for  missing  relatives  and 
friends.  None  of  the  fugitives  had  tasted  food  since  early  on 
Sunday  evening,  and  the  most  of  them  had  to  fast  until  some 


THE    NIGHT   AFTER   THE    FIRE.  265 

time  on  Tuesday;  so  that  the  night  of  Monday,  although  less 
turbulent  and  exciting  than  that  of  Sunday,  was  one  of  greater 
suffering  after  all;  suffering  which  the  victims,  exhausted  by 
hunger,  blistered  with  heat,  and  chilled  by  water,  still  in  terrible 
suspense  about  missing  ones,  and  deprived  of  the  unusual  stim- 
ulus of  the  sudden  onset  of  the  night  before — indeed  weakened 
by  the  reaction  of  that  excitement,  as  well  as  by  the  other  causes 
mentioned — were  but  poorly  able  to  bear. 

From  all  these  horrors  there  was  no  avenue  of  escape,  except 
for  the  few  who  were  able  to  reach  and  board  a  tug  or  propeller, 
and  find  rest  and  refuge  on  the  capacious  bosom  of  the  lake. 
The  outlet  to  the  west  or  north  being  shut  off  by  fire,  and  that 
to  the  south  by  water,  the  prisoners  had  only  to  stand  their 
ground,  keep  their  vitality  aglow  as  best  they  could,  and  trust 
to  God  "to  deliver  them  from  the  fiery  furnace." 

At  Lincoln  Park  and  the  old  cemetery  to  the  south  of  it,  and 
along  the  Lake-shore  Drive,  the  number  of  refugees  was  much 
greater  and  their  sufferings  much  less.  They  were  not  impris- 
oned by  the  hostile  elements;  they  were  not  threatened  with 
death.  They  had  merely  lost  all  their  property — even  l>eing 
compelled  to  see  the  household  gods  and  valuables  which  they 
had  moved  into  the  cemetery  or  the  park  burn  up  before  their 
eyes.  They  had  only  to  lament  the  probable  fate  of  a  missing 
father  or  brother,  or  to  hope  against  hope  for  his  safe  return. 
As  to  physical  condition,  they  were  simply  blinded  by  smoke, 
weakened  by  hunger,  and  choking  with  thirst  at  every  gland 
and  pore — that  was  all.  So  these  Lincoln  Park  and  cemetery 
victims  might  be  pronounced  very  comfortably  off! 

The  scene  in  the  cemetery  was  a  very  weird  one,  as  may  be 
imagined.  It  is  an  old  burial-ground,  from  which  many  of  the 
bodies  had  been  removed,  leaving  some  old  headstones  scattered 
23 


266  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

about,  and  many,  with  their  mounds,  still  standing  among  the 
thick  undergrowth  of  grass  and  small  oak  trees.  By  nightfall 
on  Monday  there  could  not  have  been  less  than  thirty  thousand 
men,  women,  and  children,  huddled  within  this  ghostly  inclosure. 
Some  had  sat  here  all  day,  seeing  the  devilish  flame?  advance 
from  street  to  street,  from  mile  to  mile,  and  others  now  rushed 
in  breathless,  dragging  a  trunk,  or  carrying  some  bundle,  piece 
of  furniture,  or  household  utensil.  Almost  all  the  new-comers 
ran  rapidly  about,  crying  for  a  brother,  sister,  child,  or  friend. 
As  twilight  became  dusk,  and  dusk  reddened  into  the  mock 
daylight  furnished  by  the  conflagration,  the  assembled  thou- 
sands, tired  of  searching  for  friends,  disconsolately  sought  rest- 
ing-places for  the  night  among  the  grass-grown  graves. 

To  quote  the  description  of  a  writer  in  the  World:  "  The  eyes 
of  all  looked  as  if  they  suffered  from  ophthalmia — black  and 
red  with  smoke  and  cinders  till  they  were  almost  blind.  There 
were  piles  of  every  sort  of  furniture  that  ever  came  to  the  city. 
There  were  pails,  bureaus,  chairs,  tables,  trunks,  tubs,  clocks, 
great  plate  mirrors  leaning  against  the  trees  and  flashing  back 
the  illumination,  a  few  bedsteads  in  need  of  reconstruction, 
clothes  in  little  piles,  carpets,  pictures,  rolls  of  cloth  here  and 
there,  new  shoes  on  strings,  and  suspicious-looking  boxes  that 
had  been  'saved'  from  jewelry  stores  by  the  wrong  man.  Here 
is  a  group  of  girls  wailing  in  a  poor,  heart-broken  way  for  their 
mother — their  sick  mother — whom  they  left  in  a  burning  bed- 
room. Here  is  a  refined  and  handsome  lady,  all  alone,  with  a 
bundle  of  dresses  on  her  right  arm,  and  a  caster  laid  by  her  side 
on  the  ground.  Here  is  a  strong,  able-bodied  man,  recogniza- 
ble as  a  banker,  sitting  sadly  on  a  grave,  with  his  hat  over  his 
aching  eyes,  gazing  thoughtfully  into  a  frying-pan  which  he 
holds  in  his  hand.  Every- where  are  rushing  crowds,  exclama- 


THE   NIGHT   AFTER  THE   FIRE.  267 

tions,  salutations  of  woe  in  every  language  under  heaven,  and 
weeping  aloud  by  those  who  have  lost  their  friends  and  will  not 
be  comforted.  Here  comes  a  young  man  who  exhibits  an  ice- 
pitcher,  and  laughingly  declares  that  it  is  all  he  possesses  in  the 
world.  There  are  no  strangers  here.  There  are  no  ceremonies. 
The  cement  of  a  kindred  sorrow  has  done  its  work.  Every  body 
speaks  freely  to  any  body,  and  even  the  churl  finds  his  human 
side  and  turns  it  genially  toward  us. 

"Meantime  the  roaring  ocean  of  flame  nears  us.  It  bom- 
bards even  this  sacred  necropolis  with  its  hellish  missiles. 
Every-where  among  the  dead  leaves  fall  the  blazing  embers. 
The  torches  alight  head  first  upon  the  hollow  graves.  Groups 
dodge  and  run,  and  here  and  there  a  fire  is  kindled  by  the 
brands,  and  there  is  a  struggle  to  stamp  it  out.  The  fire  howls 
up  to  heaven,  and  bends  and  bows  over  the  cemetery  like  an 
iris  of  doom.  The  park  is  lighted  up  as  by  a  million  fire-bal- 
loons, sailing  over  in  endless  succession.  Now  the  dead-house 
is  afire,  and  a  shudder  of  horror  runs  through  the  multitude. 
It  defies  the  extinguishers.  It  burns  until  it  is  consumed.  But 
it  was,  happily,  tenantless.  At  the  head  of  the  graves  stands 
usually  a  cheap  pine  head-board,  and  these  in  many  instances 
are  burned  up,  and  in  a  few  cases  the  fire  burrows  down  into 
the  peaceful  tenement  beneath,  for  the  drought  has  been  so  se- 
vere that  the  very  soil  is  combustible.  At  last  the  raging  sea 
sweeps  by  to  the  northward,  following  the  line  of  houses,  and 
the  most  reckless  or  courageous  of  these  elfin  junketers  lie  down 
upon  the  graves  to  sleep — the  queerest  camp  that  ever  gathered 
under  heaven.  At  two  o'clock  came  the  blessed  rain,  and  the 
multitude  shivered  with  chill  while  they  welcomed  it.  It  was  a 
dreadful  night  in  the  cemetery.  A  muffled  moan  of  discomfort 
went  through  it  from  night  to  morning,  and  hundreds  doubtless 


268  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

contracted  fatal  diseases  in  the  exposure.  It  was  a  night  not  to 
forget  in  this  world  or  the  next — a  night  in  which  the  demon 
of  fire  invaded  the  realm  of  the  quiet  angel  of  death." 

The  scene  on  the  prairie  to  the  westward  of  the  city,  whither 
t\e  fugitives  had  been  thronging  all  through  Sunday  night  and 
Monday,  was  much  the  same,  minus  some  of  the  weird  features. 
There  was  the  same  contrast  of  classes — Mr.  McCormick,  the 
millionaire  of  the  reaper  trade,  and  other  north-side  nabobs, 
herding  promiscuously  with  the  humblest  laborer,  the  lowest 
vagabond,  and  the  meanest  harlot.  There  was  the  same  com- 
munity of  suffering,  which  brought  them  all  to  the  level  of 
weak  mortals,  humbled  before  a  power  whose  superiority,  how- 
ever they  might  have  ignored  it  heretofore,  they  must  now  ac- 
knowledge. There  was  the  same  terrible  suspense  about  absent 
ones,  whose  fate,  through  many,  many  hours,  was  unknown  to 
those  who  held  them  most  dear. 

This  general  separation  of  families  may  at  first  seem  extra- 
ordinary; but  it  will  be  recollected  that  the  onset  of  the  fire 
was  very  rapid,  and  that  it  soon  had  the  city  divided  in  twain 
by  an  impassable  stream  or  wave  of  flame ;  that,  in  the  attempt 
to  save  property,  which  the  instincts  of  all  prompted,  the  weaker 
ones  would  be  consigned  to  some  place  of  supposed  safety,  while 
the  stronger  went  back  to  wrestle  with  the  rapacious  monster 
for  some  of  the  precious  possessions  on  which  he  had  fixed  his 
levy ;  and  that  in  this  attempt — so  rapidly  did  the  foe  advance 
— separation  was  almost  inevitable.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that 
the  flight,  on  this  occasion,  was  in  all  directions — the  thorough- 
fares being  glutted  not  only  with  the  stream  of  north-side  fu- 
gitives, but  with  the  vast  throng  which,  until  the  bridges  were 
burned,  came  pouring  over  from  the  south  side,  and  also  with 
the  thousands  who  rushed  in  from  the  west,  either  as  idle  spec- 


THE   NIGHT    AFTEK   THE    FIKE.  269 

tutors  or  to  help  in  the  rescue  of  friends  whom  they  hoped  to 
reach.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  hundreds  perished  in  the  flames;  that  almost  every  family 
became  separated,  and  that  each  straying  member  was  racked 
with  the  tortures  of  a  terrible  anxiety  concerning  the  fate  of 
the  missing  ones. 

Thus  passed  the  long  and  weary  hours  of  Monday  night  over 

a  hundred  thousand  houseless  heads. 

I 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  DEATH  ROLL. 

Fatalities  of  the  fire — How  brave  men  met  their  death — A  fatal  leap — A 
neighborhood  swallowed  up  by  flames — Scene  at  the  Morgue. 

PTHHE  loss  of  life  in  this  conflagration  was  less  than  would 
-*-  have  been  predicted  in  view  of  the  extent  and  rapidity  of 
the  burning.  The  exact  number  will  never  be  ascertained. 
The  destruction*  was  in  many  districts  so  complete  that  no  ves- 
tige of  a  human  body  or  skeleton  would  be  discernible  among 
the  debris  of  consumed  buildings;  and  in  other  cases  the  exca- 
vation and  rebuilding  went  on  in  such  a  hurry  that  no  report 
would  be  made,  if  indeed  notice  was  taken  by  the  workmen,  of 
bones  found.  Perhaps  twenty  or  thirty  persons  were  known  to 
have  perished,  and  were  reported  in  the  first  issue  of  the  news- 
papers. The  coroner  found,  during  the  fortnight  following  the 

I 

fire,  the  remains  of  one  hundred  and  seven  persons,  only  a  very 
few  of  which  were  identified. 

The  fire  in  the  West  Division  resulted,  so  far  as  is  known, 
in  the  death  of  but  two  persons,  Jacob  Wolf,  an  old  man,  who 
was  overtaken  in  his  house  on  Harrison  Street,  near  Jefferson, 
and  Mary  Dealm,  who  perished  on  Jackson  Street,  near  Clin- 
ton. In  the  south  section  of  the  city  it  was  reported  that  a 
group  of  six  men,  stationed  on  the  roof  of  a  Madison  Street 

store  to  fight  fire,  were  carried  down  with   the  building  and 
(270) 


THE   DEATH    ROLL.  271 

^wallowed  up  by  the  flames;  also  that  five  men  in  a  cart,  passing 
by  one  of  the  tall  dry  goods  stores,  were  killed  by  fulling  walls; 
but  we  can  find  no  confirmation  of  these  statements  in  the  coro- 
ner's records.  Several  deaths  in  this  quarter  of  the  city  are,  how- 
ever, well  authenticated.  One  of  the  victims  was  John  McDevitt, 
tho  noted  billiard  champion,  who  was  wandering  about,  intoxi- 
cated, in  the  neighborhood  of  the  post-office,  and  who  perished, 
a  victim  to  his  dissolute  habits.  Samuel  Shawcross,  a  mer- 
chant tailor  who  did  business  on  Washington  Street,  and  who 
kept  a  bachelor's  room,  was  wakened  only  when  surrounded 
by  flames.  He  rushed,  half  dressed,  toward  his  shop,  and 
while  passing  through  the  alley  by  Field  &  Leiter's  immense 
store,  was  crushed  by  the  falling  walls' of  that  building.  An- 
other victim  was  Henry  J.  Ullmann,  a  banker,  who  rushed 
into  his  office  to  save  a  large  quantity  of  coin  and  currency, 
and  who  never  came  out  alive ;  though  some  of  his  friends  feel 
sure  that  he  did  escape  and  was  struck  down  upon  the  street 
by  a  ruffian,  who  escaped  with  his  booty.  There  were  four 
other  dead  bodies  recognized  in  the  South  Division  of  the  city — 
two  of  them  of  notorious  cracksmen  who  were  trying  to  rifle 
a  store  on  South  Water  Street.  Another  was  that  of  H.  P. 
Dewey,  an  insurance  agent,  who  perished  in  an  attempt  to  es- 
cape from  a  fourth  story  window,  at  No.  125  Dearborn  Street. 
The  scene  was  witnessed  by  hundreds  of  people,  including  one 
of  the  editors  of  the  Tribune*  who  thus  describes  it : 

"While  Madison  Street,  west  of  Dearborn,  and  the  west  side 
of  Dearbom  were  all  ablaze,  the  spectators  saw  a  lurid  light 
appear  in  the  rear  windows  of  Speed's  Block.  Presently  a  man, 
had  apparently  taken  time  to  dress  himself  leisurely,  ap- 

*  Mr.  Sydney  Howard  Gay. 


272  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

peared  on  the  extension  built  up  to  the  second  story  of  two  of 
the  stores.  He  coolly  looked  down  the  thirty  feet  between  him 
and  the  ground,  while  the  excited  crowd  first  cried  jump!  and 
then  some  of  them  more  considerately  looked  for  a  ladder.  A 
long  plank  was  presently  found,  and  answered  the  same  as  a 
ladder,  and  was  placed  at  once  against  the  building,  down  which 
the  man  soon  after  slid.  But  while  those  preparations  were 
going  on  there  suddenly  appeared  another  man  at  a  fourth 
story  window  of  the  building  below,  which  had  no  projection, 
but  was  flush  from  the  top  to  the  ground — four  stories  and  a 
basement.  His  escape  by  the  stairway  was  evidently  cut  off, 
and  he  looked  despairingly  down  the  fifty  feet  between  him  and 
the  ground.  The  crowd  grew  almost  frantic  at  the  sight,  for 
it  was  only  a  choice  of  death  before  him — by  fire  or  by  being 
crushed  to  death  by  the  fall.  Senseless  cries  of  jump!  jump! 
went  up  from  the  crowd — senseless  but  full  of  sympathy,  for 
the  sight  was  absolutely  agonizing.  Then  for  a  minute  or  two 
he  disappeared;  perhaps  even  less,  but  it  seemed  so  long  a  time 
that  the  supposition  was  that  he  had  fallen,  suffocated  with  the 
smoke  and  heat.  But  no;  he  appears  again.  First  he  throws 
out  a  bed ;  then  some  bed-clothes,  apparently ;  why,  probably 
even  he  does  not  know.  Again  he  looks  down  the  dead,  sheer 
wall  of  fifty  feet  below  him.  He  hesitates,  and  well  he  may, 
as  he  turns  again  and  looks  behind  him.  Then  he  mounts  to 
the  window-sill.  His  whole  form  appears,  naked  to  the  shirt, 
and  his  white  limbs  gleam  against  the  dark  wall  in  the  bright 
light  as  he  swings  himself  below  the  window.  Somehow — how 
none  can  tell — he  drops  and  catches  upon  the  top  of  the  windows 
bdow  him,  of  the  third  story.  He  stoops  and  drops  again,  and 
seizes  the  frame  with  his  hands,  and  his  gleaming  body  once 
more  straightens  and  hangs  prone  downward,  and  then  drops  in-  A 


THE   DEATH    ROLL.  273 

stantly  and  accurately  upon  the  window-sill  of  the  third  story. 
A  shout  more  of  joy  than  applause  goes  up  from  the  breathless 
crowd,  and  those  who  had  turned  away  their  heads,  not  bearing 
to  look  upon  him  as  he  seemed  about  to  drop  to  sudden  and 
certain  death,  glanced  up  at  him  once  more,  with  a  ray  of 
hope,  at  this  daring  and  skillful  feat.  Into  this  window  he 
crept  to  look,  probably,  for  a  stairway,  but  appeared  again  pres- 
ently, for  here  only  was  the  only  avenue  of  escape,  desperate 
and  hopeless  as  it  was.  Once  more  he  dropped,  his  body  hang- 
ing by  his  hands.  The  crowed  screamed,  and  waved  to  him  to 
swing  himself  over  the  projection  from  which  the  other  man 
had  just  been  rescued.  He  tried  to  do  this,  and  vibrated  like 
a  pendulum  from  side  to  side,  but  could  not  reach  far  enough 
to  throw  himself  upon  its  roof.  Then  he  hung  by  one  hand 
and  looked  down ;  raising  the  other  hand  he  took  a  fresh  hold 
and  swung  from  side  to  side  once  more  to  reach  the  roof.  In 
vain  ;  again  he  hung  motionless  by  one  hand,  and  slowly  turned 
his  head  over  his  shoulder  and  gazed  into  the  abyss  below  him. 
Then,  gathering  himself  up,  he  let  go  his  hold,  and  for  a  second 
a  gleam  of  white  shot  down  full  forty  feet  to  the  foundation  of 
the  basement.  Of  course  it  killed  him.  He  was  taken  to  a 
drug  store  close  by,  and  died  in  ten  minutes." 

It  was  in  the  North  Division,  however,  that  the  fatalities 
were  the  most  numerous  and  shocking.  There, -especially  in 
the  quarter  adjoining  the  river  and  north  of  Chicago  Avenue, 
which  was  thickly  covered  with  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  the 
flames  ran  along  as  fast  as  a  man  coidd  walk,  and,  what  was 
worse,  was  constantly  leaping  to  new  points,  both  due  forward 
and  laterally,  and  propagating  itself  faster  than  its  victims 
could  possibly  flee  before  it,  even  if  they  had  not  attempted  to 
save  any  of  their  goods.  It  was  in  this  way  that  the  monster 


274  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

devoured  hundreds  with  his  fiery  breath.  Between  Townsend 
Street  and  Wesson,  and  within  three  blocks  of  Chicago  Avenue, 
on  an  area  of  not  more  than  forty  acres,  there  were  found  the 
bodies  of  forty-five  poor  creatures,  none  of  which  were  recog- 
nizable, but  which  were  undoubtedly  the  German  and  Scandi- 
navian people  inhabiting  that  quarter.  The  rapidity  of  the 
flames  alone,  however,  would  not  have  caused  the  destruction 
of  so  many  lives,  but  for  the  combination  of  other  circum- 
stances which  worked  fatally.  There  was  a  general  hegira 
across  all  the  bridges  leading  to  the  west  side.  Chicago  Av- 
enue was  the  best  of  the  thoroughfares  tending  in  this  direction. 
Through  this  the  people  poured  like  the  mountain  torrent 
through  its  too  narrow  gorge.  All  at  once,  when  the  fiercest 
blasts  of  the  monster  furnace  had  begun  to  sweep  through  this 
section  with  heat  which  threatened  death  to  thousands,  it  was 
discovered  that  the  bridge  was  for  the  time  impassable.  The 
people  were  rushing,  tumbling,  crowding,  storming  toward  it 
in  terribly  irresistible  numbers.  Those  who  were  nearest  the 
burning  bridge  could  not  turn  back  because  of  the  pressure  of 
the  frantic  multitude.  They  attempted  to  make  a  stand,  by 
passing  along  the  word  to  beat  back  the  on-surging  mass  of 
men,  and  women,  and  horses,  and  wagons.  But  the  task  was 
simply  impossible,  as  at  the  rearmost  of  the  crowd  were  now 
fairly  lashed  by  the  flames  and  could  not  stop.  Whether  the 
foremost  hundreds  would  or  not,  they  were  forced  to  turn  to 
the  northward  and  attempt  to  escape  through  the  burning 
streets  to  North  Avenue,  half  a  mile  further  north,  where 
was  another  bridge.  Into  the  vortex  of  flame  they  plunge — 
may  Heaven  send  them  guidance  through  it!  Out  from  that 
vortex  of  flame  some  two-score  of  them  never  emerge.  May 
Heaven  send  sweet  mercy  to  their  souls !  Alas !  They  knew 


THE    DEATU    ROLL.  275 

not  that  those  street*?,  or  lanes,  had  no  outlet  for  some  three 
hundred  yards  or  more. 

This  exceptional  case  of  great  mortality,  caused  by  people 
being  pent  up  in  "no  thoroughfares,"  serves  to  illustrate  how 
lives  were  saved  in  other  cases  by  the  fact  that  nearly  every 
street  in  Chicago  is  a  thoroughfare;  that  they  are  straight  and 
level;  and  that  bridges  occur  at  frequent  intervals.  Had  it 
been  otherwise  and  the  fire  stretched,  as  it  did,  over  three  miles, 
as  the  streets  run,  in  barely  six  hours,  the  poor  citizens  would 
have  been  mown  down  by  thousands. 

One  noble  fellow,  Johnny  Beart,  perished  at  Lill's  Brewery 
while  attempting  to  rescue  the  horses  which  he  had  been  wont 
to  drive.  Mrs.  In  ness,  a  Scotch  lady,  mother  of  two  Lake 
Street  merchants,  who,  and  a  sister,  made  up  the  family,  was 
killed  by  a  falling  wall,  at  Indiana  and  Erie  Streets,  after 
becoming  separated  from  her  family  and  lost  in  the  smoke. 
One  Andrew  Monahan,  an  old  constable,  died  on  North  Mar- 
ket Street,  from  suffocation.  Other  poor  wretches,  who  had 
evidently  been  sick  or  intoxicated,  died  on  the  very  door-step, 
or  the  sidewalk,  while  trying  to  crawl  into  the  open  air. 
Others,  who  found  themselves  stifled  with  the  hot  breath  of 
the  flames,  insanely  sought  refuge  in  confined  places.  One 
guch  was  found  dead  in  a  water  pipe  lying  on  the  ground 
near  the  water-works.  In  one  house  on  Bremer  Street,  eight 
bodies  were  found;  evidently  a  whole  family  had  died  to- 
gether. Something  remarkable  was  the  devotion  to  property 
of  ten  blacksmiths  who  assembed  at  the  shop  at  which  they 
worked,  on  Chicago  Avenue,  broke  in  the  door,  rushed  in 
for  their  tools,  and  were  all  crushed  by  falling  walls.  Others 
died — but  not  many,  as  was  at  first  reported  and  widely  be- 
lieved—on the  prairie  to  the  westward,  from  the  effects  of  the 


276  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

exposure  which  they  had  undergone  in  the  fire.  Maria  Bur- 
gess, a  woman  of  the  town,  died  two  days  afterward  from  ex- 
posure. Indeed,  the  cases  of  death  resulting  from  exposure,  as 
well  as  those  of  death  produced  indirectly  by  the  fire,  like  that 
of  W.  E.  Longworth,  a  carpenter,  who  committed  suicide  on, 
account  of  the  ruin  of  his  property,  are  numerous,  but  are  not 
capable  of  being  collated. 

The  total  number  of  deaths  caused  by  the  fire  is  estimated 
by  Coroner  Stephens  and  Dr.  Ben.  C.  Miller,  county  physician, 
at  near  three  hundred.  This  does  not  include  still-born  chil- 
dren. The  amount  of  illness,  and  the  seeds  of  disease,  perma- 
nent or  temporary,  traceable  to  the  fire  and  the  exposure,  ex- 
citement, etc.,  incident  to  it,  can  not,  of  course,  be  computed; 
but  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  some  half  dozen  cases  of  insan- 
ity, growing  out  of  the  dreadful  event,  have  come  under  the 
notice  of  the  county  physician. 

The  dead  bodies  were  gathered  up  as  soon  as  possible  by  the 
coroner  and  given  interment  at  the  county  burying-ground. 
That  officer  brought  in,  on  the  second  day  after  the  fire,  some 
seventy  bodies,  or  fragments  of  bodies,  which  were  placed  in 
an  extemporized  morgue  and  exposed  to  the  view  of  such  of  the 
public  as  chose  to  see  the  horrid  sight.  Over  three  thousand 
persons  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege,  on  that  day,  all  in 
the  hope,  or  rather  the  dread,  of  being  able  to  recognize  the 
remains  of  some  missing  friend.  The  sight  of  the  charred  and 
shapeless  fragments  was  as  loathsome  as  that  of  the  anxious, 
wretched  throng  was  heart-rending.  A  few,  and  only  a  few, 
of  the  fragments  were  recognized;  and  so  the  mourners  of  miss- 
ing ones  went  back  to  their  places  of  temporary  shelter,  to  hope 
against  hope,  and  to  continue  the  search  for  that  which,  all  the 
while,  they  dreaded  most  bitterly  to  find. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   DESOLATION   COMPLETED. 

The  day  after  the  fire — A  glimpse  at  the  feeling  in  the  country — A  view 
at  daybreak — Chicago'8  ghost. 

MONDAY  was  not  a  day  of  blank  dismay  only.  There 
was  a  prompt  manifestation  of  vitality  in  the  city  gov- 
ernment, which  showed  itself  in  several  practical  ways.  First, 
the  Mayor  telegraphed  to  neighboring  cities  for  aid;  for  fire- 
engines  to  help  stay  the  ravages  of  the  fire,  and  for  bread  to 
feed  the  many  thousand  hungry  and  destitute.  He  also  got 
together  a  council  of  the  city  officers,  consisting  of  hi»eelf,  the 
Comptroller,  and  the  President  of  the  Police  Commissioners, 
who  jointly  signed  a  proclamation  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
confidence,  and  organizing  measures  for  relief  and  protection. 
The  head-quarters  of  the  city  government  were  fixed  at  a 
church,  nearly  two  miles  to  the  west  of  the  ruined  City  Hall, 
and  the  authorities  immediately  commenced  to  act  as  the  emer- 
gency required. 

Business  men  were  acting,  too,  on  their  own  individual  re- 
sponsibility. Some  of  them  had  engaged  new  quarters  before 
the  roofs  of  their  old  establishments  had  fallen  in.  It  will  not 
do  tc  say  that  many  of  them  ordered  goods  by  telegraph  on  thsit 
day,  for,  in  the  first  place,  the  telegraph  wires  and  machinery 
mostly  went  with  the  rest  so  that  people  were  besieging  the 

(277) 


278  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

out-of-town  offices  all  day  in  vain  to  transmit  news  of  their 
own  safety  to  distant  friends;  and,  in  the  next  place,  the  dire- 
ful consequences  of  the  conflagration  upon  the  business  credit 
of  the  city  were  at  first  overestimated,  at  home  as  well  as  at  the 
East.  Hence  the  most  that  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  busi- 
ness on  that  day  was  for  some  heads  of  houses  to  dash  into  the 
surviving  district — the  west  side  or  the  extreme  south — and  en- 
gage, at  a  smart  bonus,  such  quarters  as  they  could  find  for  the 
continuation  of  their  business. 

It  was  impossible  to  make  visits  to  the  ruins  on  Monday,  on 
account  of  the  great  heat  and  the  still  tumbling  walls.  All 
travel  between  the  east  and  west  sides  of  the  river  was  done 
through  Twelfth  Street,  which  thus  became  gorged  with  vehi- 
cles and  pedestrians.  All  railroad  trains  on  the  south  side 
stopped  at  Twenty-second  Street,  two  miles  south  of  their  usual 
terminus.  There  was  no  gathering  together  of  the  people  on 
this  day,  for  there  was  nowhere  to  gather.  Even  the  loafing 
power  of  the  city  was  staggered  for  the  time.  There  was  no 
running  «f  the  street-railroad  cars,  or  other  of  the  signs  of  life 
which  usually  are  visible,  even  on  Sabbaths  and  holidays.  In 
short,  the  day  seemed  a  dies  non — a  day  burnt  out  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  city. 

This  was  the  aspect  of  the  case  in  the  South  Division  of  the 
city.  That  in  the  north,  where  the  flames  were  still  raging 
with  fury,  has  already  been  described.  At  night,  all  who  had 
beds  to  lie  in  or  roofs  to  shelter  them,  lay  down  and  slept 
heavily,  as  was  necessary  to  recuperate  them  from  the  exhaust- 
ing experiences  of  the  past  twenty  hours,  and  to  prepare  them 
for  the  duties  of  the  morrow — the  raising  of  the  new  Chicago 
out  of  the  chaos  in  which  all  was  now  en  wrapped. 

A  citizen  of  Chicago,  who  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  miss  see- 


THE  DESOLATION  COMPLETED.  279 

ing  the  terribly  grand  spectacle  of  the  fire,  thus  describes  for 
us  his  impressions  on  reentering  the  city  on  Tuesday  morning, 
after  the  fatal  Monday : 

"  I  was  spending  a  few  days  at  Burlington,  Wisconsin,  to  re- 
cruit my  health.  This  occupation  was  of  course  superseded  by 
the  news  of  Monday  morning;  for  with  Chicago  burned,  no 
Chicago  man  could  afford  to  be  on  the  sick  list  any  longer. 
The  village  mentioned  is  off  on  a  cross-road,  having  very  poor 
connections  with  Chicago;  yet  it  did  not  take  fifteen  minutes  to 
inflame  the  people  with  the  most  intense  excitement  over  the 
great  disaster.  The  panic  set  in  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  day  the  post-office  and  es- 
pecially the  telegraph  office  were  thronged  with  persons  eager 
to  communicate  with  relatives  in  the  city,  and  utterly  unable  (o 
do  so.  I  could  not  get  a  train  to  Chicago  that  day,  so  I  went 
to  Milwaukee,  where  communication  with  the  center  of  interest 
would  be  easier.  At  Racine,  boarding  the  train  from  Chicago, 
I  found  it  doubled  in  length,  and  filled  with  refugees  from  the 
doomed  city — at  least  a  thousand  of  them — plunged  in  all  de- 
grees of  despondency,  and  manifesting  all  degrees  of  hardship 
and  privation.  From  some  of  these  I  learned  particulars  of 
the  conflagration.  At  Milwaukee  we  were  met  at  the  depot  by 
what  seemed  to  be  the  entire  population  of  the  town — come  to 
hear  the  latest  news,  or  tender  their  hospitality  to  any  irieuils 
who  might  be  on  board  the  train.  They  told  me  there  had  IKTU 
no  business  transacted  in  the  city  since  the  news  of  the  fire  oame 
in  the  forenoon.  Every  body  was  carrying  water  to  his  house- 
top, and  watching  for  the  extras  which  the  newspaper  offices 
were  issuing  nervously  every  half-hour. 

"  Taking  a  night  train,  I  reached  Chicago  at  daybreak. 
Drawing  aside  the  curtain  of  my  berth  in  the  sleeping-car,  I 


280  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGKATION. 

gazed  upon  the  scene  as  we  passed  along  by  the  remains  of  the 
North  Division.  I  will  confess  it,  I  was  at  that  moment  in  a 
mood  for  sight-seeing.  But  it  was  soon  subdued,  I  assure  you, 
by  the  scenes  upon  which  I  gazed.  For  half  a  mile  along  the 
North  Branch,  there  was  little  visible  but  the  flames  and  smoke 
of  objects  still  burning.  The  way  in  which  the  devouring  ele- 
ment was  left  to  revel  at  will  in  factories,  warehouses,  and  stores 
of  fuel,  even  along  the  river's  bank,  told  but  too  plainly  how 
complete  had  been  its  victory  over  every  capability  of  resistance. 
There  had  been  copious  showers  during  the  night,  and  the  gale 
had  died  away;  yet  the  fire  seemed  superior  to  all  these,  as  well 
as  all  human  obstacles,  and  continued  its  work  unconcerned. 
But  it  burned  languidly,  and  tossed  off  racks  and  sprays  of 
flame  in  a  wanton  way,  as  if  the  monster  had  glutted  himself 
on  human  blood  and  human  handiwork,  and  was  now  dawdling 
with  the  relics  of  his  feast,  like  a  sated  and  stupefied  glutton. 
And  the  ribs  of  the  burning  buildings  showed  against  the  red 
flame  like  the  naked  bones  of  the  monster's  victims. 

"Alighting  from  the  car,  I  took  my  way,  in  the  gray  dawn, 
through  the  damp  and  deserted  streets.  The  rain  was  over,  but 
the  leaden  clouds  added  a  gloom  to  the  already  gloomy  scene. 
To  relieve  this  gloom  there  was,  if  I  chose  to  accept  it,  the 
bright  glow  of  a  mile  of  burning  coal — a  mountain-range  of 
flame  along  the  river — containing  fuel  enough  to  have  made 
cheerful  ten  thousand  households  through  all  the  long,  cold 
winter.  Alas!  the  waste  and  the  want!  It  seemed  to  me  at 
that  moment  as  if  I  should  never  enjoy  again  the  ruddy  glow 
of  an  evening  fire.  I  passed  down  Canal  Street — a  forlorn  sort 
of  thoroughfare,  at  best — a  relic  of  the  old  Chicago,  upon  which 
we  had  all  come  to  look  with  contempt.  To  the  left  was  the 
worthless  wreck  of  the  new  Chicago — of  all  which  had  begotten 


THE   DESOLATION   COMPLETED.  281 

ihis  pride,  and  this  contempt  for  the  '  day  of  small  things/  Its 
black,  bleak  desolation,  its  skeleton  streets,  its  sha'peless  masses 
of  brick  and  mortar,  its  gaunt  and  jagged  spires,  only  remnants 
of  walls  but  yesterday  so  proud  and  stately,  stared  at  me  from 
every  point. 

"  The  turbid  river  was  encumbered  with  masses  of  charred 
wood,  with  black  hulks  of  vessels,  and  skeletons  of  fallen 
bridges.  One  or  two  propellers  were  hugging  the  hither  shore, 
like  white  doves  frightened  from  their  nests,  and  shrinking  to- 
ward what  semblance  of  cover  offered  itself,  if,  perchance,  it 
might  shelter  them  from  the  fell  pursuer. 

"  The  hour  was  early,  and  so  exhausted — exhausted  or  par- 
alyzed— had  the  people  apparently  become  by  their  excitement 
and  suffering,  that  the  streets  were  almost  utterly  deserted.  I 
was  thus  left  alone  with  these  pitiful  ruins;  and  the  intensity 
of  the  emotion  which  they  excited  was  doubtless  greatly  en- 
hanced by  the  circumstance.  There  had  been  a  few  men  at  a 
saloon  on  the  way,  evidently  firemen  and  watchmen,  who  had 
availed  themselves  of  the  approach  of  daylight  to  refresh  them- 
selves with  a  dismal  sort  of  qarouse;  but  I  had  left  these  be- 
hind, and  was  alone  with  the  ruins. 

"ALONE  WITH  THE  GHOST  OF  CHICAGO! 

"  It  stared  at  me  till  I  was  fain  to  hide  it  from  my  eyes,  and 
to  rush  on  more  rapidly.  My  bosom  was  heaving  with  an  un- 
wonted emotion ;  my  eyea  were  filling,  and  my  throat  begin- 
ning to  tingle  with  a  feeling  to  which  I  have  been  of  late  years 
a  stranger. 

"  Coming  upon  Adams  Street,  where  the  ruins  of  an  iron  via-  ' 
duct  were  still  standing,  I  resolved  to  look  the  situation  in  the 
face.     The  structure,  though  tottering,  bore  my  weight,  and  I 

pushed  on  to  its  further  end.    The  ruins  of  the  river  bridge  lay 
24 


282  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GKEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

in  the  stream  beneath  me.  The  town,  or  what  had  been  the  town, 
lay  prostrate  -beyond.  It  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
I  could  trace  any  semblance  by  which  the  various  landmarks 
of  Chicago  could  be  identified.  But  for  the  still  erect  walls  of 
the  Court-house,  Post-office,  and  Tribune  building,  this  "would 
have  been  utterly  impossible.  The  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the 
Sherman  House,  the  elegant  stores  of  State  Street,  the  Palmer 
House,  the  Opera-house,  the  new  palaces  of  marble  to  the  south 
of  the  Post-office — all  were  leveled  in  the  dust,  or  shattered  into 
unrecognizable  fragments.  The  grand  Pacific  Hotel,  which  I 
had  been  accustomed  to  gaze  on  with  pride  each  morning  from 
this  precise  point  of  view,  was  a  jagged  and  crumbling  ruin — 
beautiful  still,  but  a  hopeless  ruin — nothing  more.  My  idols 
— and  I  now  realized  to  what  an  unwise  extent  I  had  made 
them  my  idols — were  now  shattered  and  scattered  at  my  feet. 
My  interests  were  in  some,  but  I  had  loved  them  all,  and  now 
I  mourned  them  all  equally. 

"  The  scene  of  Sunday  night  must  have  been  terrible,  but  it 
could  not,  with  all  its  horrors,  have  been  so  affecting  to  the 
tender  emotions  as  this.  Then  there  were  flames  roaring  and 
devouring,  men  cursing  and  striving,  noble  hearts  risking  them- 
selves to  save  others,  brutes  of  men  plundering  and  extorting, 
women  and  children  fleeing  and  screaming,  and  every  thing  to 
excite  the  mind  and  stimulate  the  nerves.  Here  every  thing 
tended  to  subdue  and  overcome  one.  Here  I  saw — not  a  few 
bodies  threatened  with  sudden  destruction;  I  saw  the  coined 
product  of  the  mind,  the  muscle,  the  flesh  and  bones,  the  hopes 
and  ambitions  of  a  hundred  thousand  fellow-beings,  expended 
through  twenty  years,  all  swept  into  oblivion.  There  was  more 
life  represented  in  those  miles  of  streets,  now  prostrated,  than 
in  all  that  surging,  shrieking  throng  of  Sunday  night;  and  here 


THE   DESOLATION   COMPLETED.  283 

it  \vas — all — all — confronting  me,  like  a  fleshlcss,  lifeless  ghost, 
and  holding  up  to  me,  in  token  of  distress — to  me  alone — its 
spectral  hands;  for  such  seemed  the  gaunt  obelisks  which  the 
demon  had  left  as  monuments  of  his  rage,  along  with  the  yel- 
low and  raephitic  flames  which  flickered  from  the  coal-heaps 
among  the  ruins,  as  if  they  were  traces  of  the  sulphurous  domain 
from  which  the  destroyer  had  come. 

"The  mute  appeal,  the  solitude,  the  hour,  all  together  so 
3vercame  my  feelings,  that  I  leaned  against  a  column  of  the 
bridge,  and  gave  way  to  tears — wept  as  I  had  not  supposed  I 
could  do,  by  whatsoever  moved. 

"From  this  condition  of  feeling  I  was  aroused  by  the  ap- 
proach of  a  young  man,  who,  though  of  rather  fine  mien  in 
most  respects,  bore  that  unkempt,  unshaven,  unwashed  appear- 
ance which  I  afterward  found  to  characterize  the  whole  popula- 
tion of  the  city  for  the  week  following  the  fire.  He  came  with  a 
small  flask  to  procure  water  from  the  river.  He  was  a  stranger 
to  me,  but  somehow  he  seemed  like  a  brother,  so  close  did  the 
great  ordeal  bring  men  together.  We  talked  considerably  of 
the  details  of  the  conflagration.  I  remarked  upon  the  fearful 
danger  to  the  remainder  of  the  city,  resulting  from  a  total  fail- 
ure of  the  water  supply/ 

" '  Oh/  he  said,  cheerfully,  '  we  '11  have  water  again  in  a  few 
days.  We'll  be  all  right  again  soon.' 

" '  Yes,'  I  echoed,  though  mechanically,  '  we  '11  be  all  right 
again  soon.' 

"  And  the  sun  shone  out  at  that  moment  from  a  rift  in  the 
clouds,  at  the  point  where  the  cloudy  arch  dipped  into  Lake 
Michigan,  diffusing  a  rosy  light  and  warmth,  as  if  in  confirma- 
tion of  our  cheerful  prophesyings.  His  brightness  seemed  to 
foreshadow  the  future  glory  of  Chicago  quite  as  plainly  as  the 


284  CHICAGO   AND   THE    GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

paling  lamps  behind  us  had  suggested  the  faded  luster  of  her 
past.  And  with  this  my  Chicago  buoyancy  came  back,  and  I 
regained  such  a  flow  of  spirits  that  it  was  not  for  any  mere 
purpose  of  keeping  my  courage  up  that  I  whistled  all  the  way 
past  a  huge  stack  of  coffins,  which  some  enterprising  under- 
taker had  saved  from  the  ruins  in  a  capacious  wain  and  left  to 
embellish  the  street  which  led  to  my  home." 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   LOSSES   BY  THE   FIRE. 

Property  destroyed — Can  land  burn  up? — Values  of  business  blocks,  hotels, 
and  other  prominent  buildings — Produce  and  merchandise  destroyed — 
Real  estate  as  affected  by  the  fire — Uninsurable  losses — Commerce  and 
manufactures — The  effect  on  business — The  grand  total. 

A  MID  such  a  general  wreck,  th'e  attempt  to  gather  correct 
-^*-  statistics  of  the  losses  entailed  by  the  great  conflagration, 
may  well  seem  a  hopeless  one.  So  many  records  were  de- 
stroyed ;  so  many  people  driven  from  the  city,  who  could  alone 
give  accurate  information  on  some  essential  point;  such  a  uni- 
versal scattering  and  destruction  among  those  who  remained, 
that  it  is  practically  impossible  to  cover  every  item  in  the  im-* 
mense  aggregate  of  loss. 

We  essay  the  task  with  diffidence,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  we  have  taken  all  possible  pains  in  the  investigation  of 
losses.  The  following  statements  are  probably  very  near  the 
truth  in  the  aggregate — made  up  of  details  obtained  by  per- 
sonal inquiry  from  many  hundreds  of  the  parties  most  inter- 
ested in  the  sad  exhibit. 

The  limiting  lines  of  the  area  swept  by  the  flames  have  been 
already  indicated,  and  the  position  of  the  burnt  district  will  be 
easily  understood  by  a  glance  at  the  accompanying  map. 

In  the  West  Division  about  194  acres  were  burned  over, 

(286) 


286  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

including  16  acres  swept  by  the  fire  of  the  previous  evening. 
This  district  contained  several  lumber-yards  and  planing-mills, 
the  Union  Depot  of  the  St.  Louis  and  Pittsburg  &  Fort  AVayne 
Railroads,  with  a  few  minor  hotels  and  factories,  several  board- 
ing-houses, and  a  host  of  saloons.  The  buildings  burned — about 
500  in  number — were  nearly  all  frame  structures,  and  not  of 
much  value,  but  were  closely  packed  together.  About  2250 
persons  were  rendered  homeless  in  this  division. 

In  the  South  Division  the  burned  area  comprised  about  460 
acres.  The  southern  boundary  line  was  a  diagonal,  running, 
from  the  corner  of  Michigan  Avenue  and  Congress  Street, 
west-south-west  to  the  intersection  of  Fifth  Avenue  (Wells)  and 
Polk  Street.  On  the  other  three  sides  the  bounding  lines  were 
the  lake  and  the  river — only  one  block  (the  Lind)  being  left  in 
all  that  area.  This  district  contained  the  great  majority  of  the 
most  expensive  structures  in  the  city,  all  the  wholesale  stores, 
all  the  newspaper  offices,  all  the  principal  banks,  and  insurance 
and  law  offices,  many  coal-yards,  nearly  all  the  hotels,  and  many 
factories,  the  Court-house,  Custom-house,  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
etc. — as  stated  more  at  length  in  our  chapter  descriptive  of  Chi- 
cago in  1871.  The  number  of  buildings  destroyed  in  this  division 
was  about  3650,  which  included  1600  stores,  28  hotels,  and  60 
manufacturing  establishments.  About  21,800  persons  were  ren- 
dered homeless,  very  many  of  whom  were  residents  in  the  upper 
stories  of  the  palatial  structures  devoted,  below,  to  commerce. 
There  were,  however,  many  poer  families,  and  a  great  many  hu- 
man rats,  resident  in  the  western  part  of  this  territory. 

In  the  North  Division  the  devastation  was  the  most  wide- 
spread, fully  1450  acres  being  burned  over,  out  of  the  2533 
acres  in  that  division.  And  even  this  statement  fails  to  convey 
an  idea  of  the  wholesale  destruction  wrought  there,  because  the 


THE   LOSSES    BY   THE   FIEE.  287 

territory  unburned  was  unoccupied.  Had  there  been  any  ex- 
cept widely-scattered  structures  in  the  unburned  portion,  they, 
too,  would  have  been  destroyed,  as  the  fire  licked  up  all  in  its 
path,  and  paused  only  when  there  was  no  more  food  whereon 
to  whet  its  insatiable  appetite.  Of  the  13,800  buildings  in  that 
division,  not  more  than  500  were  left  standing,  leaving  13,300 
in  ruins,  and  rendering  74,450  persons  homeless.  The  build- 
ings burned  included  more  than  600  stores  and  100  manufac- 
turing establishments,  the  latter  being  principally  grouped  in 
the  south-western  part  of  this  division.  That  part  next  the 
lake,  as  far  north  as  Whiting  Street,  was  occupied  by  first-class 
residences,  of  which  only  one  was  lelt  standing — that  of  Mahlon 
D.  Ogden.  On  Chicago  Avenue  was  the  Water- works,  and  this 
was  the  initial  point  of  a  line  of  breweries  that  stretched  out 
almost  to  the  cemetery.  The  river  banks  were  piled  high  with 
lumber  and  coal,  which  was  all  destroyed,  except  a  portion  near 
the  bend  of  the  river,  at  Kinzie  Street.  The  space  between 
the  burned  district  and  the  river,  to  the  westward,  contained 
but  little  improved  property.  Lincoln  Park  lay  to  the  north- 
ward, on  the  lake-shore.  The  fire  burned  up  the  southern  part 
of  this  park — the  old  City  Cemetery — but  left  the  improved 
part  untouched,  except  a  portion  of  the  fencing.  One  of  the 
saddest  among  the  many  sad  scenes  that  met  the  eye  after  the 
conflagration  had  done  its  work,  was  that  in  the  old  cemetery 
— the  flames  had  even  made  havoc  among  the  dead,  burning 
down  the  wooden  monuments,  and  shattering  stone  vaults  to 
fragments,  leaving  exposed  many  scores  of  the  remnants  of  mor- 
tality that  had  smoldered  for  years  in  oblivion. 

The  total  area  burned  over  in  the  city,  including  streets,  was 
2100  acres,  or  very  nearly  3£  square  miles.  The  number  of 
buildings  destroyed  was  17,450;  of  persons  rendered  homeless, 


288  CHICAGO  AND   THE    GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

98,500.  Of  the  latter,  more  than  250  paid  the  last  debt  of  na- 
ture amid  the  carnage — fell  victims  to  the  Moloch  of  our  mod- 
ern civilization. 

To  give, a  statement  of  individual  losses  would  be  to  publish 
a  directory,  which  no  one  would  read.  Instead  of  this  we  pro- 
pose to  give  a  synopsis  of  the  principal  losses,  in  buildings, 
produce,  merchandise,  other  personal  property,  on  churches  and 
schools,  public  improvements,  etc.,  with  the  effects  of  the  ca- 
tastrophe on  the  pecuniary  values  of  the  property  untouched 
by  the  fire.  Before  tabulating,  -we  may  premise  that  the  de- 
preciation in  the  price  of  the  real  estate  in  the  city  is  estimated 
by  the  most  careful  judges  to  average  fully  thirty  per  cent. 
Several  sales  in  the  burned  district  in  the  South  Division  were 
made  immediately  after  the  fire,  at  a  reduction  of  about  eighteen 
per  cent,  from  previous  prices.  Since  then  a  reaction  has  set  in, 
and  real  estate  in  that  district  has  sold  at  nearly  previous 
prices.  Property  situated  directly  south  and  west  of  that  area 
has  slightly  increased  in  selling  value,  owing  to  the  enhanced 
demand  for  business  purposes.  But  in  the  North  Division, 
and  in  the  boulevard  regions  of  the  "West  Division,  prices  have 
fallen  not  less  than  fifty  per  cent.,  and  not  far  from  thirty  per 
cent,  on  the  south  side,  in  the  suburban  districts. 

The  following  are  approximate  estimates  of  the  values  of 
seventy-nine  principal  business  blocks,  exclusive  of  their  con- 
tents. In  the  preparation  of  this  table  we  have  received 
valuable  assistance  from  C.  N.  Holden,  Esq.,  City  Tax  Com- 
missioner, and  Assessor  W.  B.  H.  Gray.  Of  course  the  value 
of  the  land  is  not  included  : 

Arcade,  Clark,  near  Madison,  ......       $75,000 

Berlin,  Monroe  and  State,  .        .  ...         15,000 

Boone's,  Lasalle,  near  Washington,  .        .        .        .        .         15,000 


THE   LOSSES  BY   THE   FIRE. 


289 


Bowen's,  etc.,  Randolph,  near  Michigan  Avenue, 

Bryan,  Lasalle  and  Monroe,  ..... 

Burch's,  Lake,  near  Wabash, 

Calhoan,  Clark,  near  Madison,          .         .        .        .        . 
Chicago  Mutual  Life  Ins.,  Fifth  Avenue,  near  Washington, 
Cobb's,  Lake  and  Michigan,  •    .        .        .        . 

Commercial,  Lasalle  and  Lake          ..... 
Commercial  Ins.  Co.,  Washington,  near  Lasalle, 
Crosby's,  State,  near  Washington,  .... 

De  Haven,  Dearborn,  near  Quincy,  .... 

Depository,  Randolph,  near  Lasalle,         .... 

Dickey's,  Dearborn  and  Lake, 

Dole's,  South  Water  and  Clark,        .        .        .    ^  . 
Drake  &  Farwell,  Wabash  and  Washington, 
Ewing,  Clark,  near  Kinzie,  ..... 

Exchange  Bank,  Lake  and  Clark,  .... 

Fullerton,  Washington  and  Dearborn,       .... 
Garrett,  Randolph  and  State,  ..... 

Honore,  Dearborn,  near  Monroe  (2),         .... 

Keep's,  Clark,  near  Madison,  

Kent's,  Monroe,  near  Lasalle, 

King's,  Washington  and  Dearborn,  .... 

Larmon,  Clark  and  Washington,  .... 

Lincoln,  Lake  and  Franklin,  ..... 

Link's,  Ljike  and  Lasalle,  

Lloyd's,  Randolph  and  Wells, 

Lombard,  Monroe  and  Custom-house  Place,     . 
Loomis,  Clark  and  South  Water,     ..... 
McCormick's,  Lake  and  Michigan  Avenue,  .        . 

McCormick's,  Randolph  and  Dearborn, 
McCormick's  Reaper  Factory,  near  Rush  Street  bridge, 
Magie's,  Lasalle  and  Randolph,      . 
Major's,  Madison  and  Lasalle,         ..... 
Marine  Bank,  Lake  and  Lasalle,  .... 

Masonic,  Dearborn,  near  Washington,    .... 
Mechanic's,  Washington,  near  Lasalle, 
25 


$200,000 

250,000 

120,000 

30,000 

30,000 

180,000 

50,000 

40,000 

75,000 

35,000 

80,000 

50,000 

30,000 

400,000 

75,000 

80,000 

60,000 

25,000 

500,000 

65,000 

55,000 

30,000 

25,000 

30,000 

60,000 

100,000 

200,000 

30,000 

180,000 

100,000 

640,000 

50,000 

150,000 

75,000 

50,000 

50,000 


290 


CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


Mercantile,  Lasalle,  near  Washington, 
Merchants'  Ins.  Co.,  Washington  and  Lasalle, 
Monroe,  Clark  and  Monroe,  ..       .        , 

Morrison,  Clark,  near  Monroe,        .  ....  .       ,.,; 

Morrison,  Clark,  near  Washington,      ,,„,.-.    .s. 
Newberry,  Wells  and  Kinzie,          .        .        ," 
Norton,  South  Water,  near  Fifth  Avenue, 
Newhouse,  South  Water,  near  Fifth  Avenue, 
Oriental,  Lasalle,  near  Washington, 
Otis,  Madison  and  Lasalle,     .... 

Palmer's,  State  and  Washington,  .        . 

Phoenix,  Lasalle,  near  Randolph,  .        • 

Pomeroy's,  South  Water,  near  Lasalle,  . 

Pope's,  Madison,  near  Clark  (2),     .        .        . 
Portland,  Dearborn  and  Washington,     .        <.. 
Purple's,  Clark  and  Ontario,         . ,-       .        . 
Raymond's,  State  and  Madison, 
Republic  Life  Ins.,  Lasalle  and  Arcade  Court, 
Reynolds',  Dearborn  and  Madison, 
Rice's,  Dearborn,  near  Randolph,  . 
Scammon,  Randolph  and  Michigan  Avenue, 
Shepard's,  Dearborn,  near  Monroe,        . 
Smith  &  Nixon's,  Washington  and  Clark,        . 
Speed's,  Dearborn,  near  Madison,  .        .        . 
Steele's,  Lasalle  and  South  Water,         .,        . 
Stone's,  Madison,  near  Lasalle, 
Turner's,  State  and  Kinzie,    ...» 
Tyler's,  Lasalle,  near  South  Water, 
Uhlich's,  Clark,  near  Kinzie,         .        . 
Union,  Lasalle  and  Washington,  .        . 

Volk's,  Washington,  near  Franklin, 
Walker's,  Dearborn,  near  Couch  Place, 
Wicker's,  State  and  South  Water,          .    "    . 
Wright's,  State  and  Kinzie,  ,        .        . 

Lill's  Brewery, 

Sand's  Ale  Brewing  Co's.  Establishment, 


$100,000 

200,000 

60,000 

100,000 

40,000 

50,000 

25,OOC 

60,000 

140,000 

100,000 

175,000 

40,000 

30,000 

160,000 

100,000 

100,000 

100,000 

350,000 

150,000 

100,000 

130,000 

80,000 

200,000 

50.000 

60,000 

30,000 

50,000 

55,000 

55,000 

120,000 

15,000 

60,000 

60,000 

30,000 

150,000 

100,000 


THE  LOSSES   BY  THE  FIRE.  291 

Illinois  State  Savings, $75,0000 

First  National  Bank,  160,0000 

City  National  Bank,  50,000 

Total  of  79  blocks,  without  contents,    ....        $8,015,000 

Public  Buildings,  etc. — Custom-house  and  Post-office,  $650,- 
000  (money  in  do.,  $2,130,000);  Court-house,  $1,100,000- 
Chamber  of  Commerce  (2),  $284,000;  Armory,  $25,000; 
Huron  Street  Police  Station,  $14,000;  Larrabee  Street  Police 
Station,  $22,000;  Gas-works,  $50,000;  Water-works  (parti- 
ally), $200,000;  Long  John  Engine-house,  $14,000;  J.  B. 
Rice  do.,  $7,000;  A.  C.  Coventry  do.,  $7,000;  A.  D.  Tits- 
worth  do.,  $8,000;  Fred.  Gund  do.,  $14,000;  Hook  and 
Ladder  buildings,  $10,800;  machinery  of  Fire  Department, 
$26,550;  battery  of  artillery,  $10,000;  800  muskets,  $10,- 
400;  eight  bridges,  $200,000;  lamp-posts,  $20,000;  damage 
to  river  tunnels,  $6,000;  telegraphic  apparatus,  including  50 
miles  of  wire,  and  60  alarm-boxes,' $50,000.  The  lineal  feet 
of  sidewalk  burned  was  486,029  in  the  North  Division ;  132,- 
662  in  the  South,  and  24,130  in  the  West ;  total,  642,841  feet, 
or  121|  miles.  The  half  of  this  would  give  60j  as  the  number 
of  miles  of  street-line  burned  over;  but  the  street  crossings 
make  fully  one-sixth  of  the  whole;  allowing  for  this  we  have 
73  miles  of  streets  in  the  area  of  the  conflagration.  This  in- 
cluded not  far  from  one-half  of  all  the  wooden-block  pavement 
in  the  city,  much  of  which  was  partially  ruined.  The  destruc- 
tion of  streets  foots  up  $500,000,  and  of  sidewalks  $940,000, 
involving  a  loss  of  about  $1,440,000.  Total  loss  on  public 
buildings,  bridges,  and  streets,  $6,298,750. 

Central  Railroad  depots  and  dockage,  $775,000;  Rock 
Island  &  Lake-Shore  Depot,  $450,000;  Galena  depots,  $525,- 
000;  West  Side  Union  Depot  (damaged),  $10,000.  Total  on 


292  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

railroad  buildings,  and  rolling  stock,  without  contents,  $1,- 
760,000. 

Newspapers,  buildings  and  newspaper  stock — Tribune,  $325,- 
000;  Times,  $100,000;  Journal,  $100,000;  Republican  (stctck 
$61,000),  $186,000;  Staats  Zeitung,  and  Post,  $160,000;  Mail 
and  Union  (stock  alone),  $12,000;  Volks-Zetiung  (stock),  $5,000. 
Totd,  nine  dailies,  $888,000. 

Hotels— Palmer,  $250,000;  Sherman,  $360,000;  Tremont, 
$360,000;  Briggs,  $200,000;  Bigelow,  $300,000;  Metropoli- 
tan, $100,000;  Adams,  $125,000;  Massasoit,  $75,000;  Matteson, 
$75,000;  City,  $60,000;  St.  James,  $120,000;  Revere,  $150,- 
000;  Nevada,  $80,000;  Hatch,  $60,000;  Anderson's,  $40,000; 
Burke's,  $60,000 ;  Central,  $40,000 ;  Clifton,  $150,000;  Eagle, 
$10,000;  European  (Rollback's),  $40,000;  Everett,  $30,000; 
Garden  City,  $50,000;  Girard,  $10,000;  Hess,  $20,000;  Hotel 
Garni,  $50,000;  Howard,  $10,000;  Hutchinson's,  $20,000; 
New  York,  $25,000;  Orient,  $50,000;  Schall's,  $40,000; 
Washington,  $20,000;  Wright's,  $10,000.  Total  loss  on  enu- 
merated hotels,  $2,890,000,  without  including  furniture. 

Theaters,  Halls,  etc — Opera-hcuise,  $250,000;  McVicker's, 
$75,000;  Farwell  Hall,  $150,000;  Hooley's,  $35,000;  Dear, 
born;  $50,000;  Museum,  $100,000;  Metropolitan,  $100,000; 
Turner  Hall,  $25,000 ;  Academy  of  Design,  $30,000 ;  Olympic, 
$50,000.  Total  on  public  halls,  $865,000,  without  including 
furnishing  of  numerous  offices  in  those  buildings. 

Public  Schools — Jones,  $13,170;  Kinzie  and  branches, 
$21,390;  Franklin  and  branch,  $77,195;  Ogden,  $39,- 
675;  Pearson  Street,  $16,750;  Elm  Street,  $16,950;  Lasalle 
Street,  $32,650;  North  Branch,  $32,000.  Total,  including 
furniture  and  heating  apparatus,  $249,780. 


THE   LOSSES   BY   THE   FIRE.  293 

The  following  was  the  loss  on  churches  and  church  property : 

Baptist — North,    $15,000;    Second    German    and    Swedish 
Churches,  §7,000;  North  Star,  §20,000;  Lincoln   Park   Mis 
sion,  $3,500;  Publication  Society,  §10,000;  "Standard,"  $25,- 
000.     Total,  §80,500. 

Congregational — New  England,  §70,000;  Lincoln  Park, 
§2,000 ;  other  losses,  $3,000.  Total,  $75,000. 

Episcopal — Ascension,  §20,000;  St.  Ansgarius,  §17,500;  St. 
James,  §200,000;  Trinity,  §100,000.  Total,  §337,500. 

Jewish — North  Side,  Sinai,  and  Kehilath  Benai  Sholom, 
§30,000 ;  hospital,  §25,000.  Total,  §55,000. 

Methodist  Episcopate-First  (business  block),  §130,000 ;  Grace, 
§85,000;  Yan  Buren  Street  (German),  §10,000;  Clybourue 
Avenue  (German),  §10,000;  First  Scandinavian,  §10,000; 
Bethel  (colored),  §10,000;  Quinu's  (colored),  §15,000;  Garret 
Biblical  Institute  (property  in  Chicago),  §85,000.  Total, 
$355,000. 

Scandinavian  Lutlieran — First  Norwegian,  and  Swedish. 
Loss,  $25,000. 

Presbyterian — First  Church  and  mission,  Second,  Fourth, 
Bremer  Street  Mission,  Erie  Street  Mission,  Clybourne  Avenue 
Mission;  total,  §465,000.  The  University  was  saved,  also  the 
Fullerton  Avenue  Church. 

Roman  Catholic— Holy  Name,  $250,000;  St.  Mary's,  $40,000; 
Immaculate  Conception,  $30,000;  St.  Michael's,  $200,000;  St. 
Joseph's,  $120,000;  St.  Louis,  $25,000;  St.  Paul's,  $25,000; 
these  losses  include  pastors'  residences  and  schools.  Convents — 
Sisters  Mercy,  $100,000;  Good  Shepherd,  $90,000;  also,  St 
Joseph's  Orphan  Asylum,  $40,000;  Christian  Brothers'  Col- 
lege, $80,000;  Alexian  Hospital,  $60,000;  Bishops'  residence, 
$40,000;  other  losses,  $250,000.  Total,  $1,350,000, 


294  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Swedenborgian— Temple,  $36,000;  North  Mission,  $5,000. 
Total,  $41,000. 

Unity  Church  (Rev.  Eobert  Collyer),  $175,000;  Illinois 
Street  Mission,  $25,000 ;  Mariners'  Bethel,  $5,000. 

Grand  total  of  Church  losu  (some  only  estimated),  $3,- 
000,000. 

Leading  Book  Stores — Western  News  Co.,  S.  C.  Griggs  & 
Co.,  jrfid  Keen,  Cooke  &  Co.,  books,  $600,000;  buildings, 
$500,000;  others  265,000. 

Law  Libraries,        .            .            .            «  .  '•  $200,000 

Young  Men's  Library  (20,000),     .            .        ,  ,  30,000 

Historical  (60,000  books,  145,000  pamphlets),  .  200,000 

Academy  of  Science  (5000),  books.            . .  »  20,000 

Young  Men's  Christian  (10,000),     .            .  .  .12,000 

Union  Catholic  (5000),        .        '   .*  "       \  .  \              7,000 

Franklin  (3000),      .....  4,000 

Other  public  libraries,  (10,000)      .            .  .  16,000 

The  loss  on  private  libraries  can  scarcely  be  estimated;  Mr. 
McCagg's  was  worth  fully  $40,000;  other  private  libraries 
would  foot  up  a  total  of  over  $500,000.  Total  books,  with 
three  stores,  $2,354,000. 

Grain  Elevators— Central  A,  $150,000;  National,  $80,000; 
Galena,  Hiram  Wheeler's,  and  Munger  &  Co.'s,  average, 
$125,000  each.  Contents,  1,642,000  bushels  of  grain,  worth 
$1,210,000.  Several  small-  warehouses  near  them,  where 
grain  was  stored  on  private  terms,  swell  the  aggregate  to 
$2,100,000. 

Provisions,  8000  bbls.  pork, '  6000  tierces  lard,  1,000,000 
flbs.  meats;  total,  $340,000.  Flour,  15,000  barrels,  wcrth 
$97,500. 

Lumber,  65,000,000  feet  in  yards,  with  2,500,000  feet  more 


THE    LOSSES    BY   THE   FIRE.  295 

in  planing-mills,  and  2,000,000  each  of  shingles  and  lath. 
Total,  $  1,040,000. 

Coal  burned  (80,000  tons),  $600,000. 

National  Banks — (All  burned  but  one.)  Clearing-house, 
City,  Commercial,  Cook  County,  Corn  Exchange,  Fifth,  First, 
Fourth,  German,  Manufacturers,  Mechanics,  Merchants,  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Commerce,  Loan  and  Trust  Co.,  North-western, 
Second,  Third,  Traders,  Union. 

Other  Banks — Germania ;  Hibernian  (Savings) ;  Marine ; 
Real  Estate,  Loan  &  Trust  Co.;  Union  Insurance  &  Trust 
Co.;  Chicago  (Savings) ;  Commercial  Loan  Co.;  German  (Sav- 
ings) ;  Merchants,  Farmers,  &  Mechanics  (Savings) ;  Mer- 
chants (Savings) ;  National  Loan  &  Trust  Co.;  Normal  Co.; 
Illinois  State  Savings  Institution,  and  twenty-one  other  bank- 
ing firms. 

The  loss  on  personal  property  of  banks,  exclusive  of  build- 
ings, could  not  be  obtained.  It  was  probably  about  $1,000,000. 
This  includes  money  burned  up,  but  does  not  include  evidences 
of  indebtedness  in  one  form  or  anothe^  as  if  any  of  those 
accounts  were  lost  to  the  banks,  it  was  simply  so  much  less  to 
be  paid  by  the  debtors. 

Dry  Goods,  Wholesale — O.  L.  American  &  Co.;  Bo  wen, 
Hunt  &  Winslow;  Day,  Tilden  &  Co.;  J.  V.  Farwell  &  Co.; 
Richards,  Crumbaugh  &  Shaw ;  Stetthauers  &  Wineman ;  Field, 
Leiter  &  Co.;  D.  "W.  &  A.  Keith  &  Co.;  Rosenfeld,  Munzer  & 
Co.;  Carson,  Pirie  &  Co.;  C.  Gossage  &  Co.;  Hamlin,  Hale  & 
Co.;  J.  B.  Shay  &  Co.;  Simpson,  Norwell  &  Co.;  Price,  Rosen- 
blatt &  Co.;  Stine,  Kramer  &  Co.  Total  loss,  $10,000,000,  of 
which  about  forty  per  cent,  will  be  paid  by  the  Insurance  Com- 
panies, three-quarters  of  the  stocks  being  insured.  Also,  thirty- 


296  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

five  retail  firms;  loss,  $3,500,000.  Total  loss,  wholesale  and 
retail,  $13,500,000. 

Drugs,  Wholesale — (Fuller  <fe  Fuller  escaped.)  Burnham  & 
Son;  Cory,  Barrett  &  Co.;  Hurlbut  &  Edsall;  Lord,  Smith  & 
Co.;  Rock  wood  &  Blocki;  Tolman  &  King;  Van  Schaack, 
Stevenson  &  Co.  Total  loss,  $750,000;  and  45  retail  dealers, 
$250,000.  Total  loss  on  drugs,  $1,000,000. 

Soots  and  Shoes,  Wholesale — W.  S.  Crowley;  Phelps,  Dodge 
&  Palmer;  Doggett,  Bassett  &  Hills;  C.  H.  Fargo  &  Co.;  Far- 
num,  Flagg  &  Co.;  T.  B.  Weber  &  Co.;  C.  M.  Henderson  & 
Co.;  C.  B.  Sawyer  &  Co.;  M.  D.  Wells  &  Co.;  Whitney  Bros.  & 
Yundt.  All  the  above  were  manufacturers.  Goldman  Bros.; 
McAuley,  Yeo  &  Co.;  J.  F.  Morrill  &  Co.;  Cummings  &  Co.; 
North  Bennington  Co.;  Geo.  P.  Gore  &  Co.;  C.  O.  Thompson 
&  Co.;  Wiswall,  Nazro  &  Thompson;  Weage,  Kirtland  & 
Ordway;  Greenfelder,  Rosenthal  &  Co.;  and  63  retail  dealers. 
The  total  losses  of  boots  and  shoes  alone,  amounted  to  $2,500,- 
000  among  the  wholesale  dealers;  and  about  $1,000,000  among 
the  retailers,  some  $"^,000  worth  of  the  stock  held  by  the  latter 
being  saved. 

The  loss  in  leather  and  stock,  among  hide  dealers,  etc.,  ag- 
gregated $1,750,000  more;  the  stock  of  French  skins  was  much 
less  than  stated  by  the  Shoe  and  Leather  Reporter.  Eighteen 
dealers  in  hides  and  leather  were  burned  out,  besides  the  sole 
and  upper-leather  houses  who  tanned  their  own  stock. 

Grocers,  Wholesale — Beckwith  &  Sons ;  Barbour  &  Son ;  Bliss, 
Moore  &  Co.;  Burton  &  Pierce;  Church  &  Co.;  G.  C.  Cook  & 
Co.;  F.  D.  Cossett  &  Co.;  Day,  Allen  &  Co.;  J.  W.  Doane  &  Co.; 
Downer  &  Co.;  Durand  Bros.  &  Powers,  and  Durand,  Powers 
&  Mead;  C.  E.  Durand  &  Co.;  Farringdon,  Brewster  &  Co.; 
Forsyth  &  Co.;  Gould,  Briggs  &  Co.;  J.  A.  &  H.  F.  Griswold 


THE   LOSSES  BY  TH-E   FIRE.  29"i 

&  Co.;  Grannis  &  Farwell ;  Gray  Bros.;  Hibben  &  Co.;  Harmon, 
Messer  &  Co.;  Hoyt  &  Co.;  Ingraham,  Corbin  &  Blay ;  Kellogg 
&Covell;  Knowles,  Cloyes  &  Co.;  Kussell  Bros.;  China  Tea 
Co.;  F.  Macveagh ;  McKindley,  Gilchrist  &  Co.;  Mead  &  Hig- 
gins;  "W.  F.  McLaughlin ;  Knowles,  Burdsall  &  Bacon ;  Quan  & 
Co.;  Reid,  Murdock  &  Fisher;  Sayres,  Gilmore  &  Co.;  Sibley 
&  Endicott;  Smith  Bros.  &  Co.;  H.  C.  Smith  &  Co.;  Sprague, 
Warner  &  Co.;  J.  W.  Stearns  &  Sous ;  Stewart,  Aldrich  &  Co.; 
Taylor  &  Wright;  Wells  &  Faulkner;  Willard  &  Co.;  N.  Sher- 
wood &  Co.;  Bennett,  Fuller  &  Co.;  Bittinger  &  Bro.;  M.  Graff 
&  Co.  Total  loss,  $3,750,000;  and  218  retailers,  aggregating 
$450,000,  making  a  total  loss  on  groceries,  etc.,  of  §4,120,000. 

Clothing,  Wholesale — Clement,  Morton  &  Co.;  Morse,  Loomis 
&  Co.;  H.  W.  King  &  Co.;  C.  P.  Kellogg  &  Co.;  Tuttle,  Thomp- 
son &  Wetmore;  H.  A.  Kohn  &  Bros.;  A.  &  H.  Kohn ;  Leopold, 
Kuh  &  Co.;  Cahu,  Wampold  &  Co.;  Clayburgh,  Ernstein  &  Co.; 
Meyer,  Strauss  &  Co.  Total  loss,  $3,400,000 ;  besides  §250,000 
worth  of  furnishing  goods.  Whole  loss  on  clothing,  etc.,  at 
wholesale,  §3,650,000. 

Hardware,  etc.,  IWiotesale — E.  Hunt  &  Sons;  Larrabee  & 
North;  Hall,  Kimbark  &  Co.;  Miller,  Bros.  &  Keep;  H.  W. 
Austin;  William  Blair  &  Co.;  J.  K.  Botsford  &  Son;  Brintnall, 
Terry  &  Belden;  Green  baum  Sons;  Hay  wood,  Cartledge  <fe 
Honore;  Hibbard  &  Spencer;  J.  Leibenstein ;  Markley,  Ailing 
&  Co.;  E.  A.  Mears ;  Sieberger  &  Breakey ;  J.  L.  Wayne  &  Son ; 
Western  H.  Manufacturing  Co.;  Hurlburd,  Herrick  &  Co.;  Kel- 
logg &  Johnson ;  T.  B.  &  H.  M.  Seavey ;  J.  A.  &  T.  S.  Sexton ;  S. 
J.  Surdam  &  Co.  Total  loss,  $4,030,000;  and  33  retailers  lost 
1480,000.  Total  loss  on  hardware  and  metals,  $4,510,000. 

Millinery,  Wholesak — D.  B.  Fisk  &  Co.;  Keith  Bros.;  Gage 
Bros.;  Webster  Bros.;  Mayhon,  Daly  &  Co.;  Walsh  &  Hutch- 


298  CHICAGO   AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

inson,  H.  W.  &  J.  M.  Wetherell,  and  several  smaller  firms. 
Loss,  $1,500,000.  Also,  55  retail  dealers  lost  $1 10,000.  Total 
loss,  $1,610,000. 

Hats,  Caps,  and  Furs,  Wholesale — Keith  Bros.;  Fitch,  Wil- 
liams &  Co.;  Hotchkiss,  Eddy  &  Co.;  Carhart,  Lewis  &  Co.; 
David  P.  Brown;  Gimbel  <fe  Lowenstein;  Innes  Bros.;  King 
Bros.  &  Co.;  Sweet,  Dempster  &  Co.  Loss,  $940,000.  Also, 
38  retail  dealers  lost  $120,000.  Total  loss,  $1,060,000. 

Paper  Stock,  Wholesale— Bradner,  Smith  &  Co.;  J.  W.  Butler 
&  Co.;  G.H.&L.Laflin;  Cleveland^Paper  Co.;  Oglesby,  Bar- 
nits  &  Co.  Loss,  $700,000. 

Musical  Instruments  and  Books — Root  &  Cady ;  Ly  on  &  Healy ; 
Smith  &  Nixon ;  A.  Reed  &  Sons ;  W.  W.  Kimball ;  Julius  Bauer 
&  Co.;  J.  H.  Foote;  Molter  &  Wurlitzer;  and  several  others. 
Loss,  $900^000. 

These,  which  include  the  leading  lines  of  wholesale  business 
in  the  city,  will  give  an  idea  of  the  proportionate  losses  in  other 
departments.  We  need  not  extend  the  list. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  losses  on  buildings.  Where 
the  contents  of  the  building  are  included,  the  fact  is  indicated 
by  a  star.  The  footings  do  not  in  all  cases  correspond  to  those 
above  given.  For  instance,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  is  noted 
above  as  a  public  building,  but  it  is  taxable  property ;  we  there- 
fore include  it  below  in  our  footings  of  warehouses,  depots,  etc., 
which  were  subject  to  taxation.  National,  county,  city,  church, 
and  public  school  property  was  not  taxed  : 

Eighty  business  blocks  (3  book-stores), $8,515,00' 

Railroad  depots,  warehouses,  and  Chamber  of  Commerce,         .    2,700,00( 

Hotels  (some  not  enumerated), 3,100,00f 

Theaters,  etc.,          .       ,   .     .  "   '  :.  . 865,000 


THE  LOSSES  BY  THE   FIBE.  299 

Newspaper  offices  (daily),* $888,000 

One  hundred  other  business  buildings,  .    "  .         .         .        .  1,008,421 

Other  taxable  buildings  (16,000,  average  $1,800),  .        .        .  28,800,000 

Churches,* 2,989,000 

1'ublic  schools,* 249,780 

Other  public  buildings  not  taxed, -  2,121,800 

Other  public  property 1,763;000 

Total  buildings, $53,000,000 

Our  estimate  of  $1,800  each  for  the  16,000  buildings  not 
enumerated  is  very  low;  many  of  them  cost  from  $10,000  to 
$20,000  each.  Outside  of  these,  the  great  majority  of  the  lower 
classes  of  dwellings  were  worth  $1,000  to  $1,200  each.  Were 
the  data  attainable  in  each  case,  the  loss  on  buildings  would 
probably  foot  up  to  more  than  fifty-five  millions.  Where  ab- 
solute accuracy  is  not  possible,  it  is  best  to  follow  the  lead  of 
the  insurance  adjusters,  and  cut  down  rather  than  pile  up  the 
figures. 

The  losses  on  produce,  etc.,  may  be  thus  stated  : 

Flour,  15,000  barrels. •  $97,500 

Grain  ($35,000  worth  in  private  store), 1,245,000 

Provisions  (4,400,000  pounds), 340,000 

Salt, 100,000 

Wool, 100,000 

Lumber  (65,000,000  feet  in  yards), 1,040,000 

Coal  (80,000  tons), 600,000 

Wood, 400,000 

Other  produce  in  store  and  warehouse, 1,340,000 


Total  produce,  etc., $5,262,500 

Not  less  than  350  produce  commission  offices  were  burned 
out. 


300  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

The  following  -were  losses  on  stock  and  fixtures  in  business: 

Dry  goods,     ......      • .'   '  r|  :•  'fc'  '"*   ' ;  .        .        .        .$13,500,000 

Drugs,      .      ...v    .,...*      ..      -.        .        .      1,000,000 

Boots  and  shoes,  etc.,  and  leather,    .        .      . ,      -.      •-.        .      5,175,000 

Hardware  and  metals, 4,510,000 

Groceries  and  teas,  .      ....        .        .      .  .        .        .        .      4,120,000 

Wholesale  clothing,          «•.-..        .        .        .      3,650,000 

Jewelry,  etc.,    .      '«      V     '.      '-••**      '.'.".        .       1,300,000 
Musical  instruments  and  musical  books,  .         .        .        •        ».        9,00,000 

Books  on  sale, 1,145,000 

Millinery,         .        .        .         .        .        .        .        .        ".     l  •' 

Hats,  caps,  and  furs,         .        .  x     .        .        .        .        .         . 

Wholesale  paper  stock, 

Auction  goods,  .        .        .      » •        .        ...        •        . 

Shipping  and  dredges, ,•>•• 

Banks  (not  including  buildings), 1,000,000 

Furniture  of  business  offices  (including  safes),         .         .        .      2,250,000 
Manufactories  (stock,  machinery,  and  product),        .        .        .     13,255,000 

Other  stocks,    .        .        .      "". 22,000,000 

Other  publications  than  daily  newspapers,        ....         375,000 


Total  business  (stocks  and  fixtures), $78,700,000 

The  following  are  losses  on  personal  effects  : 

Household  property, $41,000,000 

Manuscript  work  (records,  etc.), 10,000,000 

Libraries,  public  and  private *  2,010,000 

Money  lost  (Custom-house,  $2,130,000),        .        „•      „       ,  5,700,000 


Total  personal  effects, $58,710,000 

The  following  is,  therefore,  our  summary  of  losses  by  the 
fire: 


THE   LOSSES  BY  THE  FIBE.  301 

Improvements  (buildings), $53,000.000 

Produce,  etc.,      .                5,262,500 

Manufactures,       ....                ....  13,255,000 

Other  business  property,    . 65,445.000 

Personal  effects, 58,710,000 

Miscellaneous, 328,000 


Grand  total,          ........    $196,000,000 

A  few  items  included  by  us  in  improvements  in  the  preced- 
ing pages,  should  be  credited  to  personal  property,  as  daily 
newspapers  for  instance.  This  would  make  business  property 
foot  up  tp  about  $85,000,000,  and  buildings  $52,000,000,  but 
this  change  would  not  affect  the  grand  total  of  loss. 

This  estimate  of  §196,000,000  loss  is  much  lower  than  some 
that  have  been  made  by  prominent  parties ;  we  believe  it  is  as 
near  the  truth  as  is  possible  to  be  arrived  at  under  the  circum- 
stances. It  should,  however,*  be  remembered  that  in  this  ag- 
gregate we  have  not  included  mere  evidences  of  indebtedness, 
for  the  reason  given  above,  even  though  property  be  lost  in 
consequence.  Neither  do  we  add  the  enormous  sums  paid  for 
removing  personal  effects,  etc.,  during  the  fire,  nor  the  extra 
prices  paid  for  labor  and  material  in  rebuilding  the  city.  It  is 
evident  that  what  is  a  loss  to  one  man,  in  such  cases,  is  a  gain 
to  another;  the  result  is  simply  to  change  the  distribution  of 
property  among  holders.  The  question  we  have  endeavored 
to  answer  in  this  chapter  is,  "  How  much  property  was  destroyed 
h  the  fire?"  In  doing  so  we  could  not  take  cognizance  of 
mementoes,  etc. ;  that  class  of  property,  however  valuable  to 
the  owner,  like  human  life,  can  not  be  priced. 

Allowing  four  million  dollars  as  the  salvage  on  foundations 
of  prominent  blocks,  and  on  bricks  that  are  available  for  re- 


302  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

building,  we  shall  have  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  NINETY-TWO 
MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS  as  the  value  of  the  property  actually 
destroyed  by  the  fire. 

To  this  total  we  must,  however,  add  $88,000,000  for  the  de- 
preciation of  30  per  cent,  on  real  estate,  making  the  total  of 
pecuniary  loss  by  the  fire  equal  to  $280,000,000,  or  45  per 
cent,  on  the  total  property  value  of  $620,000,000  in  the  city 
before  the  fire. 

A  still  further  addition  must  be  made  for  the  loss  to  com- 
merce and  manufactures.  "We  estimate  that  the  fire  has  kept 
back  some  $50,000,000  worth  of  receipts,  which  has  interrupted 
business  to  the  extent  of  about  $125,000,000  worth  of  trading, 
wholesale  and  retail.  At  eight  per  cent,  of  profit — a  moderate 
estimate — this  would  entail  a  further  loss  of  $10,000,000, 
making  the  total  loss  $290,000,000,  or  46f  per  cent,  on  the 
entire  property  value  of  the  city.  We  may  remark  that  this 
sum  total  of  loss  is  a  little  greater  than  the  whole  valuation  of 
property,  real  and  personal,  made  by  the  assessors  in  1871,  foi 
the  purposes  of  city  taxation. 

The  number  of  books  destroyed  in  the  fire  is  estimated  at 
nearly  two  millions. 

The  Academy  of  Design,  though  recently  instituted,  had 
become  a  prominent  art  center,  and  its  destruction  was  a  great 
blow  to  art  in  the  West.  Rothermel's  Battle  of  Gettysburg, 
on  exhibition  there,  was  literally  "  saved  as  by  fire."  Of  the 
other  art  treasures  there  consumed,  Mr.  Alvah  Bradish  writes 
as  follows,  to  an  Eastern  paper :  "  There  were  Drury's  large 
and  precious  collection;  Ford's  beautiful  Ohio  wood  scenes; 
Deihl's  careful  studies  and  designs;  Jeuks'  conscientious  labors; 
Elkin's  world  of  Rocky  Mountain  studies;  Bradish's  popular 
*  Leather  Stocking/  his  full  length  portrait  of  the  late  Douglass 


THE   LOSSES  BY  THE  FIRE.  303 

Houghton,  and  numerous  smaller  works;  Pine's  attractive 
group  of  children ;  James  Gookin's  charming  '  Fairy  Wed- 
ding/ a  gift  to  the  academy.  Cogswell's  studio  contained 
some  of  his  best  portraits.  Reed  &  Son's  studio  was  crowded 
with  pictures  and  studies.  Pebble's  studio  contained  numerous 
works  of  high  promise.  Other  young  artists,  or  students, 
occupied  rooms  and  pursued  their  studies  in  the  building." 
The  collection  in  the  academy  will  not  soon  be  replaced. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

INSURANCE. 

The  fire  underwriters  —  Better  than  expected  —  The  adjusters  —  Statement 
of  assets  and  losses  of  companies  doing  business  in  Chicago  —  Insolvent 
companies  —  What  is  essential  to  real  protection  against  loss  by  fire. 


ri^HE  question  of  insurance  on  the  fire  is  not  one  of  absolute, 
-•-  but  of  relative  loss.  So  much  property  was  destroyed  ; 
the  point  at  issue  between  insurers  and  insured  was  simply  who 
should  bear  the  loss,  or  in  what  proportion  the  loss  should  be 
distributed.  If  the  insurance  companies  had  failed  to  pay  one 
cent,  the  loss  to  the  community  would  have  been  just  the  same 
as  if  they  had  paid  every  dollar  claimed. 

But  these  two  supposable  cases  would  have  involved  widely 
different  conditions  to  the  great  mass  of  those  insured  ;  to  them 
it  was  a  question  of  utter  ruin,  or  a  chance  to  begin  the  world 
anew.  Yet  there  were  many,  even  among  this  class,  who  had 
comparatively  little  interest  in  the  matter.  They  were  among 
the  largest  property  holders,  and  that  property  was  insured,  but 
they  were  also  large  stockholders  in  the  insurance  companies, 
and  to  them  the  result,  either  way,  could  be  little  else  than  the 
making  of  one  liability  to  offset  the  other,  with  no  avails  in 
any  event.  These  were  really  the  most  to  be  pitied  of  all  those 
whose  possessions  were  swept  away  by  the  flames. 

The  first  general  thought  which  succeeded  that  involved  in 
(304) 


INSURANCE.  305 

the  effort  to  find  a  place  of  safety,  was  that  all  fire  insurance 
was  utterly  worthless.  Scarcely  any  one  thought  that  any 
company  would  pay  ten  per  cent,  on  its  liabilities.  It  was 
apparent  at  a  glance  that  the  Chicago  companies  were  bank- 
rupt, and  few  dared  to  hope  that  the  others  would  not 
repudiate. 

But  within  two  or  three  days  a  change  was  noticeable.  First 
one  telegram,  and  then  several,  came  over  the  wires  from  the 
seaboard  bearing  the  welcome  intelligence  that  this  and  that 
company  was  prepared  to  pay  all  losses  in  full.  Some  of  these 
professions  have  since  proven  to  be  only  buncombe,  but  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  truth,  though  some  of  it  needed  to  be  taken 
with  a  few  grains  of  allowance.  Then  followed  great  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  amounts  of  loss  and  liability.  Some  companies 
understated  their  losses,  in  the  hope  of  inspiring  confidence  and 
securing  large  accessions  of  new  business,  while  others  overstated 
theirs  in  the  hope  of  inducing  the  sufferers  to  compromise  for  a 
small  per  centage  of  their  claims.  Meanwhile,  the  field  was  taken 
by  a  whole  army  of  "adjusters,"  some  of  whom  acted  fairly 
enough,  while  the  great  majority  seemed  to  have  but  the  one 
aim  in  view  of  pressing  the  poor  as  closely  to  the  wall  as  they 
could,  under  cover  of  the  law.  At  the  date  of  this  writing 
(November  13,  1871),  it  is  not  possible  to  make  an  exact  state- 
ment of  the  situation. 

The  following  tables  show  the  net  assets  of  each  company 
having  risks  in  the  burned  district,  the  figures  being  taken 
from  the  sworn  statements  made  by  each  company  at  the  close 
of  1870,  with  the  real  losses  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained, 
and  the  per  centage  of  insurance  upon  those  losses  which  the 
companies  will  be  able  to  pay.  This  may  be  called  the  collect- 
able per  centage. 

26 


306  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

We  give  the  net  assets,  because  the  gross  assets  of  a  company 
are  not  always  available  in  payment  of  losses,  though  it  is 
true  that  the  difference  between  the  two  is  made  up  of  items 
some  of  which  are  arbitrarily  established,  and  sometimes  un- 
fairly counted  as  deductions  from  the  company's  ability  to  pay. 

The  figures  here  given  as  representing  the  total  losses  b/  the 
rire  do  not  correspond,  except  in  a  few  cases,  with  the  losses 
admitted  by  the  companies  after  the  fire.  From  the  latest 
data  available  at  the  time,  we  have  collected  and  carefully  pre- 
pared the  figures  contained  in  the  following  six  pages.  It  is 
only  approximate  and  may  be  found  wide  of  the  truth  in  some 
instances,  but  we  believe  it  gives  a  much  nearer  approximation 
to  the  aggregate  than  any  statement  compiled  from  the  exhibits 
of  the  insurance  companies  themselves. 

In  the  list  of  companies  continuing  business,  we  have  placed 
some  whose  net  assets  are  not  nearly  equal  to  the  losses  incurred. 
Such  companies  will  undoubtedly  pay  one  hundred  cents  on  the 
dollar,  because  they  can  not  continue  without  doing  so ;  and  the 
required  amounts  will  be  made  up  by  assessment  upon  the  stock- 
holders, and  by  the  large  gains  accruing  from  receipts  at  the 
present  enormous  rates  of  insurance. 

Of  course  the  column  of  per  centage  is  not  intended  to  show 
a  basis  on  which  insurers  should  settle  with  the  companies  for 
their  losses.  We  may  have  unintentionally  overrated  or  under- 
rated the  ability  of  some  companies  to  pay.  The  best  way  for 
the  policy-holders  to  do  is  to  act  in  concert,  in  the  way  indicated 
at  the  meetings  now  being  held  in  the  city,  and  ascertain  the  full 
extent  of  the  losses  and  resources  of  each  company  that  refuses 
to  pay  in  full.  These  facts  may  not  be  ascertained  accurately 
for  some  months  after  our  book  goes  to  press. 


INSURANCE. 


307 


ILLINOIS  COMPANIES  IN  LIQUIDATION. 


Aurora,  of  Aurora,     .        . 
Chicago  Fire,  Chicago, 
Chicago  Firemen,  Chicago, 
Commercial,  Chicago. 
Equitable,  Chicago,    .         , 
Germania,  Chicago,    .        . 
Home,  Chicago, 
Illinois  Mutual,  Alton, 
Merchants,  Chicago,  . 
Mutual  Security,  Chicago,  . 


Net  Assets, 

Collect 

Jan.  1,  1871. 

Actual  Losses. 

per  c 

$187,966 

$300,000 

60 

117,387 

1,000,000 

10 

240,742 

5,000,000 

10 

302,877 

4,500,000 

6 

198,203 

3,000,000 

5 

223,967 

3,000,000 

8 

223,419 

800,000 

25 

286,097 

2,000,000 

12 

746,183 

4,250,000 

15 

303,055 

1,200,000 

18 

ILLINOIS  COMPANIES  WHICH  CONTINUE. 


Great  Western, 
Republic,    . 


Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

$  235,556 

953,771 


Collectable 
Actual  Losses,    pur  cent. 

$225,000       100 
3,500,000       100 


The  Republic  has  made  an  assessment  upon  its  stockholders 
to  meet  the^  loss. 

NEW  YORK  COMPANIES  IN  LIQUIDATION. 


Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

/^Etna, $334,570 

Astor, 206,755 

Atlantic, 361,659 

Beeckman, 230,635 

Excelsior, 239,090 

Fulton, 216,964 

Irving, 251,938 

Lamar, 469,792 

Lorillard, 1,395,063 

Manhattan, 987,350 

Market,      ...        .        .        .  473,949 


Actnal  Losses,  Collectable 
Estimated.       per  cent. 


$650,000 
300,000 
350,000 
250,000 
275,000 
400,000 
300,000 
500,000 
1,200,000 
1,200,000 
450-.000 


55 
75 

100 
90 
80 
50 
80 
80 

100 
90 

100 


308 


C1IICAGO  AND  THE   GKEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 


Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

North  America, '  $545,975 

Security,     .        .        .        .        .        .  1,000,396* 

Washington, 403,863 

Albany  City,  .  .  .  .'.'..  165,393 
Capital  City,  .  .  .  .  '  .  266,676 

Buffalo  City,  .  .  .  .  .  251,469 
Buffalo,  F.  &  M.  .  .  .-'•'.-  326,452 
Western,  .  .  .  .  .  '.  364,679 
Yonkers  &  New  York,  .  .  :  .  588,651 


Artiinl  T,og*.  s,  ro'1-rtable 
I'M  hunt  -d.       per  cent. 


$600,000 
1,500,000 
750,000 
500,000 
300,000 
600,000 
600,000 
750,000 
700,000 


NBW  YORK  COMPANIES  WHICH  CONTINUE. 

Net  Assets, 

J»n.  1,  1871.  Actual  Losses. 

Adriatic,     .        .     ,.  i      .,     -.,,   ...      $206,754  $8,500 

American,  ....        .        *        .         361,659  25,000 

American  Exchange,          .        .        . .       230,635  58,000 

Buffalo  German,       '.'J:.    ;.-i      ..        222,104  5,000 

Citizens, ,..  '     399,283  35,000 

Columbia,  .      .....        .   •_."..       386,306  3,400 

Commerce  (Albany),  ....        514,652  450,000 

Commerce  (New  York).     .        .        .        225,384  26^000 

Commercial,        .        ...        .        259,384  5.000 

Continental,        .  '     .        .     '"  .        .      1,870,297  1,300,000 

Corn  Exchange,      .    .    ^  ,....,        .        283,861  70,000 

Exchange, 150,604  3,000 

Firemen's  Fund,         .        .        .                 127,498  20,000 

Firemen's  Trust,         .  f" '"+'. "/.      '*        187,951  5,000 

Germania,       vp        .  '     .       .,      '.        704,517  238,000 

Glen's  Falls,       /      .'    '~t'   : .  '  '  *'       242,225  13,000 

Guardian, '  .        230,411  45,000 

Hanover,     .        .        .        .        ,     ' . .  .     404,541  250,000 

Hoffmann,.        .        .        .'       .        .        200,337  30,000 

Home,         .        .        .        .        .        .     3,011,455  2,140,000 


80 
70 
50 
30 
90 
40 
50 
50 
80 


Collcctabla 
per  cent. 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
,100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 


*  It  is  believed  that  a  large  amount  of  assets  reported  by  this  company- 
are  unavailable. 


INSURANCE. 


309 


Net  Assets,  (Vv»l<vta)>ie 

Jan.  1,  1871.  Actual  Losses,    per  ceut. 

Howard, $702,762  $473,000  100 

Humbold*           .        .        .  '      .        .  211,623  20,000  100 

Importers  and  Traders',            .        .  271,082  22,500  100 

International, 860,250  547,000  100 

Jefiereon, 360,739  42,500  100 

Kings  County, 222,032  30,000  100 

Lafayette, 160,770  8,000  100 

Lenox,         .        .        .        .        .        .  214,271  30,000  100 

Long  Island, 347,763           100 

Mechanics', 175,438  22,500  100 

Mechanics'  and  Traders',  .        .        .  369,926  41,500  100 

Mercantile,         .  '    .        .        .        .  235,208  112,000  100 

Merchants',     '    .'       .        .        .        .  332,031  10,000  100 

Nassau,       .                        ...  346,812          100 

National,     ......  254,000  37,500  1UO 

New  Amsterdam,        ....  364,852  570,000  100 

New  York  Fire,          ..'"."       .  328,611  15,000  100 

Niagara,     .       .       .        .        .        .  1,020,598  233,000  100 

Pacific,       .        .       .        .        .        .  367,835  13,500  100 

Phoenix,      .       '.       .  '      .    '  .        .  1,372,946  350,000  100 

Relief,         .       .        .       . ";   .     •  „  249,560  40,000  100 

Republic, 436,457  210,000  100 

Resolute,    .        .        .        .        .        .  204,265  75,000  100 

Sterling,      .        .        ...        .        .  213,199  7,500  100 

Tradesman's,       .        .        ....  311,226  30,000  100 

Williamsburgh  City,  .        .        .  v    .  389,871  85,000  100 

OTHER  STATES — COMPANIES  IN  LIQUIDATION. 


Atlantic,  Providence,  R.  L, 

American, 

Allemannia,  Cleveland,  0., 

City,  Hartford,  Conn., 

Cleveland,  Cleveland,  0., 


Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

$249,109 
321,012 
269,732 
319,164 
417,714 


Losses. 

$400,000 
600,000 
175,000 

1,000,000 
400,000 


Collectable 
per  ceDt. 

60 

55 
100 

30 
100 


310 


CHICAGO   AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 


Net  Assets, 

CollnctahU 

Jan.  1,  1871. 

Losses. 

>-r  cent. 

Connecticut,  Hartford,  Conn.,    .     •   . 

$314,229 

$600,000 

50 

Detroit  Fire  and  Marine,  Detroit,  Mich., 

204,969 

400,000 

50 

Enterprise,  Philadelphia,   .        .        . 

222,505 

500,000 

40 

German,  Cleveland,  0.,       .        .        .. 

222,660 

440,000 

50 

Hibernia,                              .        .        . 

200,000 

360,000 

55 

Hide  and  Leather,  Boston,  Mass., 

400,402 

720,000 

50 

H  spe,  Providence,  R.  I.,    .        .        .  . 

158,568 

325,000 

50 

Independent,  Boston,  Mass., 

314,749 

1,052,000 

30 

Merchants'  &  Mechanics',  Baltimore,  Md. 

,  274,962 

300,000 

85 

Merchants',  Hartford,  Conn.,     .        . 

337,295 

800,000 

40 

North  American,  Hartford,  Conn., 

275,711 

800,000 

35 

N.  E.  Mut  Marine,  Boston,  Mass., 

376,063 

950,000 

40 

National,  Boston,  Mass.,     . 

513,252 

400,000 

100 

Norwich,  Norwich,  Conn.,        '.        . 

259,864 

350,000 

70 

Occidental,  San  Francisco,     ^  . 

316,993 

270,000 

100 

Pacific,              "                     ,;.»        .     : 

1,303,831 

1,200,000 

100 

Putnam,  Hartford,  Conn.,      ...-  .        . 

403,053 

750,000 

50 

Providence  Washington,  Providence,  R.  I. 

,  315,646 

550,000 

55 

Roger  Williams,  Providence,  R.  I.,    . 

183,228 

225,000 

75 

Sun,  Cleveland,  O.,    .        .    "   .        . 

230,259 

175,000 

100 

Teutonia,      "             •'%\>;Vi;«     .  •' 

190,000 

800,000 

25 

OTHER  STATES  —  COMPANIES  CONTINUING. 

Net  Assets. 

Jan.  1,  1871. 

Losses. 

**r  c«i»* 

Bay  State,  Worcester,  Mass.,      .     '  . 

$196,275 

$5,000 

100 

Boylston,  Boston,  Mass.,     .        .     '   . 

933,256 

13,000 

100 

Commercial  Mutual,  Cleveland,  O.,     . 

282,882 

400,000 

100 

City,  Boston,  Mass.,           ,*  •      .        »--f 

399,427 

15,000 

100 

Eiiiott,        "       '/**f!*u^S->a 

594,700 

12,500 

100 

Fireman's,         "                  ... 

1,038,330 

35,000 

100 

Franklin,           "                 .       ".        •. 

541,908 

55,000 

100 

Howard,                              •    ..   •        • 

311,334 

27,500 

100 

Laurence,                            .       _,        . 

262,502 

12,500 

100 

Manuf'ctur'ra,  "                 .        .        i 

950,578 

120,000 

100 

Merchants',        a                  ... 

813,887 

10,000 

100 

Neptune,           "                 ... 

600,000 

60,000 

100 

INSURANCE. 


311 


Suffolk, 
Tremont, 
Washington, 
Fireman's  Fund,  ! 
Union, 

Merchants',  Proyi 
Narragansetts, 
Franklin,  Philade 
Ins.  Co.  N.  A. 
Lycoming, 
Alps,  Erie,  Penn. 
American  Central 
Anchor, 
Boatman's, 
Citizen's, 
Maryland,  Baltim 
National, 
Peabody, 
People's, 
Potomac, 
Union, 

jEtna,  Hartford, 
Fairfield  Co.,  Nor 
,  Hartford,  Hartfor 
Phoenix, 

National,  Bangor, 
Union, 

American,  Cincin 
Andes, 
Burnet, 
Cincinnati, 
Citizen's, 


Net  Assets. 

Jan.  1,  1871. 

Losses. 

IVr  cen 

Boston,  Mass., 

$500,000 

$10,000 

100 

tor,  Mass.,    .    . 

603,798 

335,000 

100 

•,  Boston,  Mass., 

464,513 

25,000 

100 

44 

283,288 

23,500 

100 

44 

294,543 

67,000 

100 

'" 

759,390 

25,000 

100 

San  Francisco,    * 

767,115 

700,000 

100 

" 

1,115,376 

600,000 

100 

dence, 

248,974, 

13,000 

100 

44     ... 

523,719 

20,000 

100 

jlphia,  Penn.,  . 

1,476,833 

500,000 

100 

it 

1,796,085 

550,000 

100 

"       .    . 

516,896 

1,000,000 

100 

265,524 

200,000 

100 

1,  St.  Louis,  Mo., 

216,836 

250,000 

100 

" 

121,974 

27,000 

100 

• 

51,786 

20,000 

100 

u 

271,373 

25,000 

100 

tore,  Md., 

276,642 

18,000 

100 

it 

219,856 

35,000 

100 

" 

193,888 

10,000 

100 

u 

105,825 

17,000 

100 

u 

157,986 

10,000 

100 

u 

173,418 

25,000 

100 

. 

3,757,006 

3,000,000 

100 

•walk,  Conn.,  . 

216,358 

38,000 

100 

•d,  Conn.,    .    . 

1,553,188 

1,500,000 

100 

" 

936,591 

750,000 

100 

,  Me., 

208,354 

36,000 

100 

. 

255,905 

5,000 

100 

inati,  ().,  .    .    . 

98,000 

10,000 

100 

"      ... 

1,076,402 

850,000 

100 

ii 

75,369 

4,000 

100 

it 

176,302 

40,000 

100 

u 

41,495 

20,000 

100 

312 


CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 


Farmer's, 

Fireman's 

Franklin, 

Globe, 

Home,  Columbus,  O., 


Ohio  Valley, 

People's, 

Union, 

Washington, 

Western, 

Brewer's,  Milwaukee, 

TV.  W.  National, 

St  Paul  F.  &  M., 


Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

innati,  O.,         .        .      $140,062 

Collectable 
Losses.          per  cent. 

$14,000        100 

"            ...          14,596 

5,000        100 

«...        182,651 

30,000        100 

"            ...        118,745 

50,000        100 

"           ...        111,573 

40,000        100 

O.,          .        .        .        545,193 

300,000        100 

[anufacturer's,  Gin.,  0.,      221,380 

15,000        100 

ncinnati,  O.,      .        .         115,111 

30,000        100 

"...          51,541 

5,000        100 

"        .        .        .'         22,969 

50,000        100 

"        .        .        .        111,448 

25,000        100 

"...        132,918 

21,000        100 

"       ;                        143,346 

28,000        100 

ikee,         .       .    '  .        183,681 

250,000        100 

.    '   ~       191,202 

100,000        100 

.   V'4j     280,593 

100,000        100 

n,  Ky.,      .        .        .       -163,543 

35,000        100 

FOREIGN  COMPANIES—  ALL  CONTINUING. 

Net  Assets, 
Jan.  1,  1871. 

Losses.         Per  cent. 

ndon  and  Globe,    .    $20,136,420 

$3.500,000        100 

L  Mercantile,         „        4,104,598 

2,000,000        100 

5,438,665 

150,000        100 

.     >!'^l       t       9,274,776 

110,000        100 

n,          .        ...-        4,000,000 

65;000        100 

Imperial, 
Royal, 
Commercial  Union, 


Other  companies  than  the  above-named,  had  an  aggregate 
of  insurance  variously  stated  at  five  millions  and  upward. 

Of  the  enormous  assets  of  the  Liverpool,  London,  and 
Globe,  a  large  portion  is  credited  to  the  Life  Insurance  de- 
partment. 

The  losses  tabulated  above  (only  approximate  in  some  cases), 
with  the  others  not  noted,  foot  up  a  total  of  fully  $90,000,000 


INSURANCE. 


313 


worth  of  insured  loss.  On  this  some  $40,000,000  is  collectable, 
but  many  of  the  companies  claiming  to  pay  in  full  are  "shav- 
ing" heavily.  We  estimate  that  not  more  than  $35,000,000 
will  be  paid,  of  which  nearly  §30,000,000  was  adjusted  by  the 
end  of  November.  The  insurance  companies  will  pay  about 
eighteen  per  cent,  of  the  total  value  of  all  the  property  de- 
stroyed, whether  insured  or  not. 

The  Spectator,  of  New  York,  gives  the  following  as  the  ag- 
gregate losses  of  the  companies  by  States,  the  number  of  com- 
panies in  each  State,  and  the  number  suspended : 


No.  of             Aggregate 
State.                 Companies.          capital. 

Total  gross 
assets. 

Total 
losses. 

No.  sus- 
pended. 

New  York,        .  . 

103 

$30,161,231 

$54,675,359 

$21,637,500 

20 

Ohio, 

50 

5,896,753 

7,988,076 

4,818,627 

5 

Massachusetts,  . 

34 

8,051,800 

13,880,763 

4,483,500 

3 

Pennsylvania,    . 

34 

5,025,800 

13,582,644 

2,082,000 

1 

Missouri,    .        . 

25 

2,783,254 

3,088,034 

575,000 

1 

Illinois,      .        . 

20 

4,314,951 

5,788,917 

33,878,000 

14 

Maryland,  .        . 

18 

2,837,651 

4,133,003 

397,165 

1 

Connecticut, 

11 

6,700,000 

13,829,884 

9,325,000 

7 

Kentucky, 

11 

2,000,000 

2,224,543 

6,800 

— 

Rhode  Island,   . 

9 

1,900,000 

3,116,836 

2,072,500 

6 

California, 

7 

3,753,600 

5,730,630 

2,950,000 

— 

Michigan,          . 

3 

400,000 

690,463 

175,000 

— 

Maine, 

3 

550,000 

900,161 

30,000 

— 

Wisconsin,        . 

2 

314,175 

374,883 

290,000 

— 

Minnesota,         . 

1 

120,000 

280,593 

100,000 

.  — 

New  Hampshire, 
Total  of  U.S.,    . 

1 

100,000 

134,586 



— 

335 

$74,939,216 

$135,420,426 

$82,821,122 

— 

Foreign,    .        . 
Grand  total     . 

27 

6 
341 



10,459,095 

5,813,000 

— 



$145,879,521 

$88,634,122 

57 

314  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

The  managers  of  the  insolvent  insurance  companies  have 
been  severely  blamed,  and  not  without  reason.  It  was  their 
business  to  provide  against  just  such  a  contingency  as  that  pre- 
sented by  the  Chicago  fire,  though  not  to  anticipate  it  as  likely 
tc  occur.  Insurance  is  good  for  nothing  unless  it  be  an  abso- 
lute protection  to  the  insured,  and  those  companies  whith  have 
proven  themselves  equal  to  the  test  will  assuredly  have  no  rea- 
son in  the  future  to  regret  the  outlay.  We  do  not  claim,  as 
some  have  done,  that  no  company  should  be  permitted  to  as- 
sume a  greater  aggregate  of  risks  than  the  amount  of  its  assets; 
but  some  measures  ought  to  be  taken  to  prevent  the  swinging 
of  lines  of  insurance  in  any  one  place  so  enormously  dispro- 
portionate to  its  capital  as  is  presented  in  the  returns  of  some 
companies. 

Another  lesson  taught  by  the  Chicago  fire  is  the  folly  of  local 
action  the  aim  of  which  is  to  drive  out  companies  organized  in 
other  States.  The  object  of  insurance  is  to  scatter  a  loss  as 
widely  as  possible,  so  that  the  effects  will  not  be  disastrous  to 
any  one  man  or  class  of  men; and  this  end  can  best  be  attained 
in  fire  underwriting  by  placing  the  insurance  of  any  city  in  com- 
panies whose  capital  is  not  likely  to  be  destroyed  by  the  very 
same  fire  on  which  it  is  called  to  meet  the  loss.  Any  thing  like 
a  tax  on  foreign  companies  in  the  future,  will  be  as  odious  as 
the  wild-cat  plan  of  insurance  itself,  which  is  only  intended  to 
bring  in  dividends,  and  not  to  meet  losses. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

WHAT   WAS  LEFT. 

Tho  city  not  ruined — Mistaken  advice — A  statement  of  profit  and  loss — 
Comparison  of  1868  with  1871 — The  disaster  equivalent  to  a  des- 
truction of  three  years'  growth. 

~\Tf  7  HEN  the  news  went  forth  that  Chicago  had  been  swept 
*  *  almost  from  one  side  to  the  other  by  the  devouring 
flames,  there  were  a  few  who  accepted  the  statement  as  a  highly 
colored  exaggeration.  But  this  view  quickly  gave  place  to  the 
other  extreme.  It  seemed  to  be  generally  accepted  as  a  fact 
that  Chicago  was  blotted  out  from  the  number  of  cities,  noth- 
ing remaining  but  the  location  and  the  name.  It  was  conceded 
that  the  wondrous  energy  of  the  people  was  adequate  to  the 
task  of  rebuilding,  but  it  was  thought  that  the  work  must  be 
re-begun ;  ab  initio.  The  outside  impression  was  that  not  only 
the  buildings,  but  even  the  streets,  were  obliterated,  and  the  city 
razed  as  effectually  as  if  it  had  been  taken  in  hand  by  one  of 
the  old-time  conquerors — its  site  plowed  up,  and  the  laud  sown 
with  salt. 

And  so  the  good-natured,  and  really  well-meaning,  ad- 
visers, who  lived  and  wrote  at  a  distance,  filled  hundreds  of 
newspaper  columns  with  advice  that  was  entirely  inappropriate 
to  the  occasion.  The  people  of  Chicago  were  recommended  to 
lay  out  entirely  new  street  lines,  on  an  improved  plan,  and 

(315) 


316  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

then  to  build.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  the  streets  remain 
almost  intact  in  the  burned  districts,  the  damage  to  the  wooden- 
block  pavement  scarcely  exceeding  half  a  million  of  dollars,  while 
the  immense  systems  of  sewers,  and  water  pipes,  and  gas  mains 
beneath,  are  scarcely  disturbed.  But  beyond  all  this,  the 
largest  part  of  the  city  was  unvisited  by  the  conflagration, 
though  the  burned  part  was  valuable,  almost  beyond  compari- 
4son  with  what  remained,  in  a  commercial  aspect.  To  remodel 
street  lines  in  the  burned  district  would  have  involved  changes 
elsewhere,  and  entailed  a  heavy  additional  expense  upon  an 
already  impoverished  people.  However,  that  is  not  the 
subject  of  the  present  chapter.  Our  present  object  is  to  tell 
what  remained  besides  life  and  energy,  and  hope,  on  that  terri- 
ble night,  when  the  fire  had  well-nigh  spent  its  fury  in  the 
search  after  fresh  victims,  and  settled  back  to  the  work  of  feed- 
ing upon  the  ruins,  till  every  atom  of  combustible  matter 
should  be  resolved  into  the  original  elements. 

The  destruction  was  practically  complete  in  the  North  Di- 
vision, not  more  than  500  houses  being  left  out  of  nearly 
14,000 ;  while  even  a  less  proportion  of  the  residents  were  left 
«vith  homes.  The  houses  unburned  were  generally  of  the 
smaller  class,  and  capable  of  accommodating  but  a  very  few 
persons  in  each  one. 

In  the  South  Division  the  devastation  was  complete  over 
but  a  comparatively  small  area,  and  what  remained  was  enough 
to  form  a  fine  city  in  itself.  South  of  the  southern  limit  of  the 
fire,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the  streets  were  lined  with 
buildings,  all,  without  exception,  of  a  superior  class ;  the  poorest 
one  within  two  miles  of  Harrison  and  east  of  State  scarcely 
cost  less  than  eight  to  ten  thousand  dollars.  Westward  of 
State  Street  a  poorer  class  of  residences  prevailed,  but  the 


WHAT   WAS   LEFT.  317 

streets  were  generally  in  good  order,  and  the  docks  along  the 
river  were  crowded  with  merchandise  and  factories. 

Li  the  West  Division  the  proportion  of  loss  was  even  less. 
The  burned  district  was  the  poorest  in  that  section,  in  regard  to 
the  character  of  its  buildings,  though  rich  in  the  products  of  la- 
bor and  the  means  of  providing  more  wealth.  But  behind  this 
district  was  an  imposing  array  of  fine  streets,  thickly  lined 
with  substantial  buildings,  containing  many  thousands  of  the 
well-to-do  classes  of  citizens. 

The  city  contained  a  population  of  334,270  souls.  Of  these, 
98,500  were  rendered  homeless;  leaving  235,770,  or  seventy 
per  cent.,  unharmed.  About  40,000  left  the  city  within  a  few 
weeks,  but  many  of  these  returned  subsequently,  and  many 
hundreds  of  workers  came  in  from  other  places  to  aid  in  re- 
building the  city.  In  December,  1871,  Chicago  contained  a 
population  of  not  much  less  than  300,000. 

The  number  of  buildings  burned  was  17,450 ;  remaining 
42,000,  or  seventy  per  cent.  The  value  of*  the  buildings 
burned  was  not  less  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  whole — saved, 
fifty  per  cent. 

Of  lumber  and  grain  the  proportion  destroyed  was  about 
twenty-six  per  cent.,  of  fuel  fifty  per  cent.  Of  grain  there 
was  saved  5,000,000  bushels;  of  lumber  240,000,000  feet;  of 
coal  79,000  tons. 

On  mercantile  stocks,  manufactures,  and  personal  ejfects,  the 
loss  averaged  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  the  saved,  thirty 
per  cent. 

All  the  land  remains,  substantially,  as  before  the  fire,  and 
the  street  improvements  were  but  little  disturbed,  except  in  the 
matter  of  sidewalks. 

A  comparison  of  these  facts,  with  the  statistics  given  in  pre- 


318  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

ceding  chapters  of  this  book,  leads  to  startling  conclusions,  and 
no  less  cheering  than  startling.  The  population  of  Chicago  in 
November,  1871,  one  month  after  the  fire,  was  fully  equal  to 
that  of  the  spring  of  1869.  Aggregating  the  losses  on  prop- 
erty, even  after  making  due  allowances  for  a  depreciation  in 
the  selling  price  of  real  estate  (much  of  which  can  be  but  tem- 
porary), and  adding  in  to  the  sum  the  amounts  received  and  to 
be  received  by  the  sufferers,  from  insurance  companies,  the 
stocks  of  which  are  not  held  by  Chicago  men,  we  have  a  grand 
total  of  nearly  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  which  is  con- 
siderably greater  than  the  aggregate  of  actual  values  of  real 
and  personal  property  in  the  summer  of  1868.  Equating 
these  two  comparisons,  we  find  that : 

The  Great  Conflagration  set  back  the  city  of  Chicago  not 
more  than  three  years  in  her  career  of  progress.  A  week  after 
the  fire  she  was  fully  as  "  well  to  do,"  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  as 
three  years  previously.  In  that  triennial  period — less  than 
one-tenth  of  an-ordinary  generation,  she  had  gained  all  that  she 
lost  on  that  eventful  day,  the  9th  of  October,  1871. 

If  we  mistake  not,  the  commerce  and  domestic  manufactures 
of  Chicago,  in  the  twelve  months  next  succeeding  the  fire,  will 
be  found  to  exceed  those  of  three  years  previously,  the  gold 
dollar  being  taken  as  the  standard  for  the  comparison  of 
money  values. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE    BUSINESS    OUTLOOK. 

The  first  two  days  after  the  fire — Preparing  to  resume — Extraordinary 
calmness  under  suffering — Working  with  a  will — The  newspapers — 
Meeting  of  bankers  and  business  men — Cheering  news  from  insur- 
ance companies. 

1"N  our  statement  of  what  was  left  after  the  fire,  we  omitted 
-*-  mention  of  the  one  great  possession  which  the  flames  could 
not  destroy.  The  genius  that  had  built  up  Chicago  could  not 
be  reduced  to  ashes;  that  remained — stimulated  to  renewed 
activity  by  the  calamity  that  had  befallen  the  scene  of  so  much 
effort  in  the  past.  The  kind  of  material  of  which  Chicago  men 
were  made  was  well  typified  in  the  motto  on  a  shingle  stuck  up 
amid  the  ruins  long  before  they  had  cooled,  "All  gone  but  wife, 
children,  and  energy." 

Indeed,  if  one  could  but  have  ignored  the  presence  of  the 
smoldering  ruins,  and  drawn  a  veil  over  the  memory  of  the 
scene  of  a  few  hours  previously,  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  tell  by  looking  in  the  faces  of  the  people,  or  noting  the  tone 
of  voice,  that  any  serious  loss  had  occurred.  Not  only  was  there 
no  tearing  of  hair,  or  wild  raving  about  lost  fortunes,  but  abso- 
lutely no  reference  to  the  event,  on  the*part  of  any  business  man, 
except  as  one  might  speak  of  a  business  failure  in  which  the 
individual  had  no  immediate  interest.  The  business  portion  of 

the  community  seemed  to  think  it  beneath  them  to  utter  a  word 

(319) 


320  CHICAGO   AND   THE   CHEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

of  complaint.  Several  of  the  telegrams  sent  East  for  more 
goods  actually  contained  no  word  of  reference  to  the  disaster 
that  had  swept  away  the  accumulations  of  many  years;  and  we 
heard  of  one  who  sent  word  that  he  would  be  unable  to  remit 
for  a  day  or  two,  his  affairs  being  somewhat  deranged  by  a  hasty 
removal.  Every  body  acted  as  if  there  was  neither  time  nor 
occasion  for  grieving. 

The  first  impulse  of  those  not  actually  burned  out  of  house 
and  home  was  to  care  for  the  real  sufferers.  This  assured,  the 
second  thought  was  about  growing  again.  Within  two  days 
from  the  date  of  the  fire,  a  large  proportion  of  the  business 
men  had  secured  localities  outside  the  limits  of  the  burned  dis- 
trict, or  had  given  orders  for  temporary  structures  to  be  erected 
on  the  old  site,  while  many  had  contracted  for  a  rebuilding  of 
their  property  substantially  as  before.  The  Board  of  Trade  had 
established  itself  in  west-side  quarters,  and  organized  a  commit- 
tee of  one  hundred  to  aid  in  distributing  the  supplies  of  food 
and  clothing;  the  leading  hotel  proprietors  had  secured  new 
locations;  no  one  even  waiting  to  see  what  was  saved  before 
resolving  to  go  ahead  again.  Scarcely  one,  out  of  the  entire 
host,  gave  up  in  despair.  And  it  should  be  remembered  that 
fhis  steady  preparation  for  new  business  was  proceeded  with, 
for  several  days,  amid  the  greatest  uncertainty  with  regard  to 
the  grand  result.  Scarcely  any  man  was  able  to  define  his  po- 
sition; for  even  those  who  had  not  been  burned  out  of  home, 
as  well  as  office,  knew  not  whither  they  might  drift  in  the  gen- 
eral "  sea  of  troubles."  It  was  scarcely  expected  that  any  policy 
of  insurance  would  be  worth  a  rush.  None  knew  how  much  the 
banks  might  be  crippled ;  us  not  only  their  resources  but  their 
records  were  believed  to  have  beon  destroyed,  in  that  intense 
furnace-heat  which  scarcely  ever  met  with  a  parallel  except 


THE   BUSINESS   OUTLOOK.  321 

in  the  infernal  regions.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  mercantile 
accounts  were  believed  to  have  been  burned  up.  And,  worse 
than  all,  the  destruction  of  the  Court-house  had  reduced  to 
ashes  the  only  recognized  evidence  of  title  to  property  that 
constituted  the  sole  means  of  support  to  thousands.  Not  only 
stocks  and  building  improvements  had  vanished  into  smoke 
and  thence  into  thin  air,  but  the  record  of  the  one, and  the  title 
to  the  site  of  the  other,had  departed  in  like  manner.  It  really 
seemed  as  if  the  wail  of  La  Somnambula  must  be  repeated  in 
chorus  by  every  one  of  the  residents  of  the  city,  "  All  is  lost 
now!" 

In  this  respect  all  was  chaos.  But  there  was  one  point  on 
which  all  were  clear.  The  universal  sentiment  was,  "  We  will 
square  up  old  business,  if  possible;  if  not,  we  will  commence 
anew,  and  trust  to  Providence  to  the  end."  They  had  even 
more  confidence  in  the  result  than  had  the  old  lady  whose  faith 
held  out  till  the  breeching  broke,  and  then  collapsed. 

The  suspense  was  but  short.  The  first  reassurance  was  given 
by  the  expressions  of  practical  sympathy  that  flaslred  along  the 
wires  by  the  hundred,  from  places  far  and  near,  telling  how 
much  (in  dollars)  they  felt  for  the  sufferers.  Perhaps  the  sec- 
ond was  the  statement  that  several  of  the  insurance  companies 
would  pay  in  full.  Then  a  meeting  of  bankers  was  held — on 
the  third  day — at  which  it  was  resolved  to  "go  ahead."  Then 
the  lumbermen  met,  and  resolved  that  they  would  not  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  situation  to  advance  the  price  of  lumber.  And 
simultaneously  the  wholesale  dealers  wheeled  into  line,  while 
the  Board  of  Trade  unanimously  voted  down  the  proposition  to 
repudiate  contracts  outstanding  at  the  time  of  the  fire.  All  this 
within  one  week.  Seven  days  had  scarcely  elapsed  before  gen- 
eral confidence  was  restored,  and  business  was  on  its  feet  again. 


322  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

Though  crippled  for  the  nonce,  it  was  healthy;  and  business 
men  had  resolved  to  make  the  best  of  the  situation. 

All  day  on  Monday  the  fire  was  raging,  and  none  knew  dur- 
ing the  succeeding  night  that  it  would  not  sweep  the  entire  city. 
But  on  Tuesday  morning  it  was  evident  that  that  conflagration 
had  done  its  worst.  Then  business  men  began  to  work.  Early 
that  morning  the  Tribune  and  Journal  found  a  location  on 
Canal  Street,  west  of  the  river,  and  began  work,  the  Journal 
issuing  that  evening,  and  the  Tribune  on  Wednesday  morning. 
All  the  other  dailies  were  equally  enterprising,  except  the 
Times,  the  proprietor  of  which  preferred  to  wait  for  a  couple 
of  weeks  and  start  again  in  "ship-shape."  On  that  Tuesday 
morning  the  officers  of  the  Board  of  Trade  secured  a  large  room 
at  No.  53  South  Canal  Street,  and  threw  it  open  for  business, 
while  many  of  the  commission  merchants  secured  offices  near 
that  point,  and  called  in  all  the  carpenters,  gas-fitters,  etc.,  that 
could  be  found,  to  put  their  places  in  order.  The  same  enter- 
prise was  exhibited  by  the  wholesale  dealers,  most  of  whom 
had  secured'temporary  quarters  before  nightfall,  either  in  the 
West  or  South  Divisions,  within  a  few  blocks  of  the  still  burn- 
ing ruins.  The  prominent  hotel  keepers  were  also  on  the 
alert,  the  Sherman  and  Briggs  Houses  being  re-opened  on  Mad- 
ison Street,  a  little  west  of  the  bridge. 

On  Wednesday  the  principal  bankers  held  a  meeting,  W.  F. 
Coolbaugh  presiding,  at  which  it  was  tacitly  resolved  to  con- 
tinue business,  though  no  formal  action  was  taken.  Before 
nightfall  not  less  than  twelve  of  the  banks  had  been  tempo- 
rarily located,  and  announced  their  intention  to  recommence 
just  as  soon  as  the  places  chosen  could  be  set  in  order.  It 
was  not  known  exactly  how  much  they  would  be  able  to  do, 
but  their  behavior  inspired  con6dence,  which  was  further 


THE   BUSINESS   OUTLOOK.  323 

strengthened  by  the  report  that  the  Bank  of  Montreal,  the 
richest  on  this  continent,  had  determined  to  open  an  agency  in 
Chicago.  Then  carne  in  the  telegrams  from  the  insurance  com- 
panies, full  of  cheer.  The  Liverpool,  London  and  Globe  tele- 
graphed that  they  could  and  would  pay  at  least  three  million 
dollars  immediately  on  adjustment,  provided  they  were  liable 
for  so  much.  The  Union  Insurance  Company  of  San  Fran- 
cisco telegraphed  to  their  agent  to  pay. every  dollar  of  the  half 
million  lost  by  them,  and  immediately  called  an  assessment 
upon  their  stockholders  to  keep  good  their  $750,000  in  gold 
capital,  and  $400,000  surplus.  The  North  British  and  Mer- 
cantile, and  two  or  three  other  companies  whose  names  do  not 
now  occur  to  us,  made  similar  announcements. 

The  effect  was  electrical.  The  Board  had  been  on  the  point 
of  wiping  off  all  contracts  pending  at  the  time  of  the  fire,  but 
now  a  majority  of  the  members  were  in  favor  of  honoring  all 
their  engagements,  as  far  as  could  be  ascertained  amid  the  gen- 
eral destruction  of  accounts ;  the  decision  to  this  effect  was  not, 
however,  formally  made  until  the  following  Saturday.  On  this 
day  (Wednesday)  the  Directors  of  the  Chamber,  of  Commerce 
decided  to  rebuild  on  the  old  site  as  quickly  as  possible,  and 
several  of  the  leading  merchants  obtained  permits  from  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  to  erect  temporary  wooden  buildings, 
so  that  they  could  resume  at  an  early  date.  Several  meetings 
were  held  by  prominent  citizens,  the  object  being  to  prepare 
for  the  resumption  of  business;  and  the  head-quarters  of  the 
city  government  were  temporarily  held  in  the  Congregational 
Church,  on  the  corner  of  Ann  and  Washington  Streets.  A 
telegram  was  also  received  from  Governer  Palmer,  stating  that 
a  special  meeting  of  the  Legislature  had  been  called  for  the 


324  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

next  day  to  render  such  aid  as  could  be  given  by  the  State  to 
Chicago  in  her  dire  affliction. 

All  this  within  forty-eight  hours  after  the  fire  had  passed 
into  history,  long  before  the  smoke  had  cleared  away  or  the 
cellars  stopped  burning — nearly  a  week  before  the  great  ccal 
heaps  ceased  to  light  up  the  evening  sky  with  a  lurid  glare  that 
made  night  hideous.  All  this,  too,  in  addition  to  the  work  of 
providing  shelter  for,  and  distributing  food  and  clothing  to, 
nearly  a  hundred  thousand  homeless  ones.  Talk  about  energy ! 
AVhy,  the  people  of  Chicago  themselves  never  understood  till 
then  the  extent  of  their  own  resources,  the  amount  of  energy,  still 
less  their  almost  superhuman  self-possession.  There  was  none 
of  the  hurry  that  impedes  progress,  none  of  the  grumbling  that 
interferes  with  action — nay,  not  even  the  boasting  in  which 
some  are  tempted  to  indulge  when  troubled,  to  hide  their  fears. 
In  those  two  days  scores  of  thousands  of  people  had  lived  half 
a  century,  and  the  hair  of  many  men  had  grown  precociously 
gray  (a  sober  fact),  but  there  was  no  despondency  in  the  coun- 
tenance; not  even  the  sternness  that  some  suppose  to  be  neces- 
sary to  a  successful  struggle  with  misfortune. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

AID    FROM    THE     STATE. 

Much  sympathy  and  great  expectations  —  The  Governor's  message  —  The 
canal  Hen  assumed  by  the  State  —  The  new  Custom-house  and  Post- 
office  —  The  old  land  -marks  to  be  renewed. 


rilHE  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Illinois  met  on  the  13th  of 
-*-  October,  the  fourth  day  after  the  fire,  the  object  of  the 
session  being  to  provide  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers,  a»  far  as 
it  could  be  done  in  a  constitutional  way.  Governor  Palmer 
delivered  a  message  in  which  he  strongly  recommended  that 
the  State  should  relieve  the  county  of  Cook  and  city  of  Chi- 
cago of  the  care  of  their  poor,  insane,  and  criminals,  and 
release  the  lien  on  the  canal  which  the  city  held  for  the  im- 
provement of  that  water  route.  There  was,  however,  no  money 
in  the  treasury  with  which  to  carry  out  these  measures  ;  and  to 
the  recommendation  of  the  Governor  that  the  money  be  raised 
by  direct  taxation  of  the  State,  it  was  replied  that  the  Con- 
stitution prohibited  the  creation  of  any  State  debt  beyond 
$250,000,  except  for  the  purpose  of  repelling  invasion,  sup- 
pressing insurrection,  or  defending  the  State  in  time  of  war. 
The  Governor  really  discussed  these  objections  in  his  message, 
arguing  that  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  was  that  that  sum 
might  be  exceeded  in  any  great  emergency,  like  the  destruction 

of  Chicago.     His  arguments  were  cogent,  but  the  Legislature 

(326) 


326  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

granted  no  relief  except  that  couched  in  the  assumption  of  the 
canal  debt,  in  pursuance  of  a  contract  entered  into  between  the 
State  and  the  city  long  before  the  adoption  of  the  new  Consti- 
tution. That  contract  was  to  the  effect  that  the  State  might  at 
any  time  assume  the  debt  incurred  by  the  city  in  deepening 
the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal.  The  cost  of  that  work,  with 
interest,  amounted  to  $2,955,340.  It  was  ordered  that  six  per 
cent,  bonds,  payable  in  ten  years,  be  issued  for  this  amount; 
that  not  less  than  one-fifth,  nor  more  than  one-third  of  the 
money  so  paid  should  be  applied  by  the  city  in  constructing 
the  bridges,  and  the  other  public  buildings  and  structures, 
upon  the  original  sites  thereof,  and  that  the  remainder  should 
be  applied  to  the  payment  of  interest  on  the  bonded  debt  of 
the  city,  and  to  the  maintenance  of  the  fire  and  police  depart- 
ments thereof. 

One  other  measure  was  passed  for  the  relief  of  commerce, 
changing  the  wording  of  the  warehouse  bill,  which  prohibited 
the  proprietors  of  grain  elevators  from  delivering  up  grain 
without  the  due  surrender  of  the  warehouse  receipts  issued  for 
such  grain.  Many  such  receipts  had  been  burned  up  in  the 
fire,  and  could  not  be  so  surrendered.  But  this  measure  did 
not  involve  any  pecuniary  outlay.  Expressions  of  sympathy 
fell  thick  and  fast  from  the  lips  and  pens  of  members  of  the 
Legislature  and  Senate,  but  the  wordy  discussions  in  which  they 
indulged  on  the  subject  lasted  till  the  ardor  had  cooled  down, 
and  the  Legislature  adjourned  without  action,  to  meet  again  in 
the  middle  of  November. 

At  the  time  of  this  writing  the  Legislature  has  met,  but  ac- 
complished nothing  in  regard  to  the  Chicago  disaster,  looking 
toward  relief  from  the  State.  It  is  thought  that  the  State  and 
county  taxes  will  probably  be  remitted  on  the  burnt  district  for 


AID    FROM   THE   STATE.  327 

a  year  or  two — nothing  more.  The  proposition  to  assume  the 
expense  of  conducting  the  Reform  School  and  the  county 
Poor-house  will  probably  be  negatived. 

The  gravest  duty  to  be  performed  by  the  Legislature  is  in 
regard  to  the  question  of  titles  to  property — not  only  in  the 
burned  district,  but  all  over  the  county.  Not  less  than  one 
million  distinct  titles  were  jeopardized,  more  or  less,  by  the 
destruction  of  the  records  in  the  Court-house.  The  difficulty 
was  all  the  greater  as  many  owners  of  real  estate  wished  to  sell, 
or  mortgage,  in  order  to  raise  money  wherewith  to  build,  or 
resume  business,  but  found  that  the  question  of  proof  of  title 
stood  in  the  way.  For  some  weeks  the  newspapers  were  liber- 
ally supplied  with  articles  on  the  subject,  and  the  best  legal 
talent  in  the  city  was  exercised  in  framing  bills  that  would  re- 
move the  difficulty.  It  was  found  that  the  books  of  three  ab- 
stract firms  had  been  saved,  and  it  was  proposed  to  make  one 
or  all  of  these  legal  proof  of  ownership,  unless  in  cases  where 
they  were  defective,  or  other  overwhelming  evidence  proved 
facts  not  quoted  by  them.  It  was  proposed  by  one  eminent 
lawyer  to  throw  the  \vhole  thing  into  Chancery,  making  it 
necessary  to  prove  title  at  an  expense  of  several  hundred  dol- 
lars on  each  piece  of  property.  But  this  proposal  was  received 
with  such  universal  disfavor  that  it  was  essentially  modified  by 
the  author. 

The  latest  probability  was  that  all  claimants  to  ownership, 
where  such  claim  was  not  disputed  within  a  reasonable  time,, 
should  be  determined-  to  be  the  real  owners,  without  sepa- 
rate legal  process,  and  that  the  burden  of  disproof  should 
lie  with  any  one  who  might  afterward  dispute  that  title.  It 
was  furthermore  announced  that  deeds  issued  in  the  place  of 
those  destroyed  by  fire,  do  not  need  to  be  stamped  according  to 


328  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

value,  if  the  former  deed  were  properly  stamped,  and  the  fact 
of  such  reissue  were  recited  in  the  instrument. 

No  inconsiderable  stimulus  was  given  to  the  hopes  of  the 
people  by  the  announcement  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  immediately  reconstruct  its  buildings  in  Chicago 
— the  Custom-house  and  Post-office — on  a  grand  scale,  involv- 
ing the  expenditure  of  four  to  five  millions  of  dollars  in  the 
city  within  the  next  three  years.  The  supervising  architect, 
Mr.  Mullet,  arrived  in  Chicago  in  the  early  part  of  November, 
and  announced  that  the  work  would  be  speedily  proceeded  with, 
and  that  the  building  would  be  erected  on  the  old  site,  though 
some  additional  ground  might  be  required  for  the  purpose. 

This,  and  the  provision  made  by  the  Legislature,  that  the 
public  buildings  of  city  and  county  should  be  rebuilt  where  they 
had  stood  before  the  fire,  settled  matters.  A  few  men,  more  zeal- 
ous than  wise,  had  advocated  the  removal  of  the  business  center 
of  the  city  to  other  points,  forgetting  that  the  attempt  to  do 
this  would  raise  a  war  of  contending  interests  that  would  have 
made  Chicago  almost  equally  odious,  in  the  eyes  of  the  outside 
world,  with  Paris  after  the  surrender  to  the  German  armies. 
Mr.  Mullet's  answer  to  some  of  these  pleaders  was  that  the 
Government  had  determined  to  put  the  buildings  back  where 
they  stood  formerly,  and  if  the  location  were  not  the  best,  the 
blame  would  rest  with  those  who  had  made  the  original  choice. 
It  is  probable  that  no  better  place  could  be  found  for  the  Post- 
office,  and  the  United  States  Courts,  with  other  offices,  except 
the  Custom-house — that  institution  ought  to  be  located  on  or 
near  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  as  near  to  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor  as  possible.  It  is  probable  that  a  separate  building  will 
yet  be  erected  in  that  vicinity,  for  use  by  the  Custom-house 
authorities. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE     KESUBBECTION. 

Business  on  its  feet  again — The  course  pursued  by  the  banks — A  plethora 
of  money — The  Board  of  Trade,  and  produce  movement — Mercantile 
indebtedness — Action  of  Eastern  creditors — Strength  of  Chicago's  busi- 
ness men — Retail  dealers  in  council 

OF  course  little  was  done  in  the  way  of  business  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  first  week,  beyond  the  retail  supply  of  the 
wants  of  the  people.  Chicago  was  cut  off  from  connection  with  the 
outside  world,  for  awhile,  in  a  business  way.  The  railroads  were 
disarranged  by  the  burning  of  depots  and  rolling  stock,  and  the 
personal  distresses  of  their  employes,  while  their  crippled  facili- 
ties were  taxed  to  bring  on  the  clothing  and  provisions  contrib- 
uted abroad,  and  to  carry  away  those  who  wished  to  flee  the  city. 
A  great  many  goods  were  left  untouched  by  the  fire,  outside  the 
limits  of  the  conflagration,  but  few  of  the  merchants  were  pre- 
pared to  receive  them,  and  all  the  vehicles  at  command  were 
employed  in  hauling  fuel  or  provisions  for  those  who  had  been 
burned  out,  or  in  transporting  lumber  to  the  places  where  it 
would  be  used  to  rebuild.  The  Board  of  Trade  could  not  very 
well  resume  till  the  banks  were  again  in  running  order. 

On  Thursday  the  banks  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
would  begin  at  once  to  pay  out  fifteen  per  cent,  to  depositors, 
and  this  action  was  made  public  in  the  papers  of  Friday  morn- 
ing.    They  had  little  doubt  of  their  ability  to  pay  more  at  fya 
28  (325) 


330  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

outset,  but  preferred  to  set  this  limit  as  a  protection,  in  the 
event  of  a  run.  The  Savings  Banks  also  decided  to  pay  out 
twenty  dollars  to  all  having  that  sura  or  more  on  deposit,  and 
to  pay  in  full  those  depositors  having  twenty  dollars  or  less  on 
the  books.  The  action  of  the  banks  was  excepted  to  by  many 
as  too  close,  but  it  was  afterward  conceded  that  their  policy  was 
a  judicious  one.  They  were  all  sound,  but  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  their  assets  was  in  the  shape  of  commercial  paper, 
which  it  would  have  been  cruel  to  press  for  collection ;  and  they 
wished  also  to  keep  at  command  a  sufficient  amount  of  money 
to  keep  the  wheels  of  trade  in  motion  by  aiding  the  shipment 
of  produce  eastward. 

The  greater  number  of  the  banks  resumed  on  the  following 
Tuesday  (October  17th),  and  experienced  no  trouble  in  coping 
with  the  situation.  On  the  contrary,  they  found  that  the  money 
offered  on  deposit  amounted  to  more  than  that  withdrawn.  This 
was  the  case  even  with  the  Savings  Banks.  The  fact  showed 
the  utter  absence  of  a  panic  in  Chicago,  as  other  facts  had  al- 
ready shown  that  the  city,  not  only  had  the  sympathy  but,  re- 
tained the  confidence  of  the  capitalists  of  other  cities.  This  was 
markedly  instanced  by  the  establishment, on  the  loth  of  Novem- 
ber, of  a  branch  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal  in  the  city,  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  which  was  to  forward  the  mercantile  movement 
by  granting  credits  on  the  East  and  on  Europe  and  China. 
The  status  of  the  Chicago  banks  had  been  inquired  into  on  the 
16th  of  October  by  Comptroller  Hurlburd,  who  reported  them 
as  satisfactory.  Indeed,  from  that  time  to  the  date  of  this 
writing  (November  15th),  the  banks  have  had  more  money 
than  before  the  fire.  Large  quantities  of  capital  were  sent  on 
from  other  cities,  to  be  invested  in  real  estate  at  the  reduction 
M(h,ich  it  was  anticipated  would  ensue.  A  great  deal  of  money 


THE  RESURRECTION.  331 

was  forwarded  by  insurance  companies  to  pay  on  losses,  and  the 

immense  relief-fund  itself  was  necessarily  deposited  in  banks 
> 
till  such   times  as  the  money  should   be  wanted   to  meet  the 

hardships  of  winter.  All  these  things,  operating  together,  pro- 
duced a  perfect  flush  of  bank  funds  in  November,  though  largo 
quantities  of  money  were  sent  East  in  payment  of  mercantile 
accounts.  The  banks  could  have  loaned  at  least  twice  as  much 
money  as  they  did,  had  the  right  kind  of  paper  been  offered. 
Of  course  they  had  many  applications  for  loans  which  they  were 
obliged  to  refuse,  the  security  tendered  being  hazardous. 

We  have  stated  that  the  Board  of  Trade  did  no  business  dur- 
ing that  first  week,  but  it  is  not  true  that  there  was  nothing 
doing  in  produce.  On  the  contrary,  the  grain  received  during 
that  week  aggregated  not  less  than  1635  car  loads,  or  649,000 
bushels,  and  the  shipments  amounted  to  220,460  bushels,  to 
move  which  required  the  outlay  of  fully  $165,000.  Most  of 
these  funds  were  brought  direct  from  New  York,  but  a  portion 
of  the  money  was  obtained  from  Milwaukee. 

The  Board  of  Trade  formally  resumed  business  on  Monday, 
one  week  after  the  fire,  and  thenceforward  the  trading  in  pro- 
duce was  almost  equal  in  volume  to  what  it  had  been  before  the 
fire,  while  it  actually  exceeded  that  of  a  year  preceding.  The 
following  table  of  receipts  and  shipments  of  breadstuffs  for  the 
weeks  ending  as  dated,  is  interesting  and  instructive : 

RECEIPTS.    " 

NOT.  11,  "71.  KOT.  4,  '71.       Nov.  12,  '70. 

Flour,  barrels,  ....  35,272  33,016  36,053 

Wheat,  bushels,            .        .        .  390,538  285,502  334,840 

Corn,  bushels,  ....  817,904  638,907  205,956 

Oats,  bushels,  ....  270,367  369,856  109,995 

Rye,  bushels,  ....  26,474  36,883  17,445 

Barley,  bushels,            .  87,530  91,120  15,350 


332  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

SHIPMENTS. 

NOT.  11,  '71.  Nov.  4,  '7|^     NOT.  12,  '70. 

Flour,  barrels 10,156  19,597  45,519 

Wheat,  bushels,            ...  413,909  326,451  511,289 

Corn,  bushels,      .        .  547,834  764,614  402,328 

Oats,  bushels,       ."       .  449,825  529,505  250,504 

Rye,  bushels,        ....  32,999  116,126  34,474 

Barley,  bushels,            .        .        .  107,329  71,611  104,838 

These  figures  are  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  statement  that  the 
produce  business  of  Chicago  was  ruined  by  the  fire.  And  this 
has  been  the  result,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  one-quarter 
of  the  storage-room,  and  receiving  and  shipping  facilities,  was 
burned  up.  The  immense  packing  interest  was  scarcely  touched. 
A  few  small  packing-houses  were  destroyed  in  the  North  Divis- 
ion, but  the  great  bulk  of  this  business  is  carried  on  at  the 
Stock  Yards,  or  on  the  south  branch,  far  outside  the  burned 
district. 

Except  that  the  Board  of  Trade  occupied  more  dingy  quar- 
ters than  six  weeks  previously,  there  was  little  difference  at  the 
above  dates  between  the  volume  of  business  then  and  before  the 
fire.  An  effort  had  been  made  a  week  after  the  event  to  cause 
a  division  on  the  question  of  locality,  a  portion  of  the  members 
meeting  in  Standard  Hall,  on  the  corner  of  Michigan  Avenue 
and  Thirteenth  Streets;  but  the  difficulty  was  soon  settled  by 
the  agreement  to  remove  *back  to  the  old  site  as  soon  as  the 
edifice  could  be  rebuilt,  and  the  acceptance  of  an  offer  made  by 
Judge  Farwell  to  meet  meanwhile  in  his  new  building  on  the 
east  end  of  Washington  Street  tunnel,  which  would  be  ready 
for  occupancy  in  the  early  part  of  December. 

The  mercantile  community  was  equally  successful  in  getting 
on  its  feet  again.  It  was  really  touching  to  read  some  of  the 


THE  RESURRECTION.  333 

telegrams  sent  by  Eastern  houses  to  some  of  the  leading  mer- 
chants, in  the  early  days  of  their  distress,  before  any  one  knew 
the  extent  to  which  the  calamity  would  affect  them.  They 
took  it  for  granted  that  the  Chicago  sufferers  would  commence 
anew,  and  had  full  confidence  in  their  ability.  The  tenor  of 
th:  dispatches  sent  was  generally  about  as  follows:  "We  sup- 
pose you  are  burned  out;  order  what  goods  you  require,  and 
pay  wben  you  can ;  WE  WANT  YOUR  TRADE."  Of  course  there 
was  much  of  worldly  wisdom  in  this,  but  it  was  cheering  never- 
theless to  those  who  had  so  lately  seen  the  accumulations  of 
years  go  up  in  smoke.  Soon  theje  came  from  the  East  a  num- 
ber of  men  to  investigate — not  as-  Sheriff's  officers,  but  to  learn 
the  full  extent  of  the  disaster.  The  result  of  their  inquiries 
was  better  than  they  had  dared  to  hope.  The  great  majority 
of  the  wholesale  dealers  showed  themselves  able  to  pay  their 
bills  in  full,  though  many  asked  a  short  extension  of  time.  A 
very  small  per  centage  wished  to  compromise  at  less  than  a 
hundred  cents  on  the  dollar ;  they  wanted  to  pay  up. 

The  heaviest  losses  were  sustained  by  the  dry  goods  interest ; 
they  had  very  large  stocks  on  hand,  not  less  than  ten  million 
dollars  worth,  at  wholesale,  and  those  stocks  were  turned  over 
much  less  readily  than  those  in  many  other  lines  of  trade,  in- 
volving longer  credits  at  the  seaboard.  These  facts  give  espe- 
cial significance  to  the  following  in  the  New  York  Daily  Bulle- 
tin of  November  2,  1871 : 

"There  are  about  twenty  firms,  representing  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  indebtedness,  who  pay  in  full  at  maturity. 
Another  firm,  having  probably  the  largest  indebtedness  of  any 
one  house  there,  meets  its  paper  in  full,  but  at  an  average  exten- 
sion of  a  year  and  three  quarters,  and  at  six  per  cent,  interest.  One 
or  two  other  firms,  with  a  comparatively  limited  indebtedness 


334  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

get  extensions  averaging  from  nine  months  to  a  year,  and  pro- 
pose to  pay  in  full,  but  without  interest.  Four  of  the  leading 
firms,  representing  aggregate  liabilities  to  the  amount  of 
$1,500,000,  compromise  at  an  average  of  sixty  cents,  payable 
at  periods  ranging  from  three  to  twelve  months,  without  inter- 
est. This  showing  comprises  all  of  the  wholesale  and  larger 
retail  Chicago  houses  that  have  suffered,  and  here  we  ha\e  au 
actual  loss  not  exceeding  $600,000.  Making  liberal  allowances 
for  the  possible  losses  that  some  of  our  jobbing  houses  may 
sustain  through  the  small  retailers,  therefore  we  think  that  it 
may  be  safely  estimated  that  $1,000,000  will  pay  all  the  actual 
losses  sustained  by  our  dry  goods  merchants ;  and  this  estimate 
is  entertained  by  our  most  intelligent  merchants.  That  this  is 
far  below  what  dealers  expected  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  on  the  day  after  the  fire  one  of  our  largest  jobbing  firms 
estimated  their  losses  at  about  $1,000,000,  reckoning  among 
the  creditors  with  whom  they  would  have  to  make  liberal  com- 
promises several  houses  who  have  since  announced  their  ability 
to  meet  their  liabilities  in  full  and  promptly  at  maturity. 
The  favorable  settlements  have  had  the  effect  of  restoring  con- 
fidence among  merchants ;  and  even  those  most  given  to  croak- 
ing fail  to  see  how  the  disaster  is  likely  to  bring  panic  upon 
the  dry  goods  interest  through  their  direct  losses.  The  clothing 
trade  was  largely  represented  in  Chicago,  but  out  of  the  eight 
or  ten  large  houses  there  not  one,  we  believe,  has  asked  for  an 
extension  over  any  great  length  of  time.  The  result  shows 
the  Chicago  dry  goods  merchants  to  have  been  more  solid, 
financially,  than  they  had  been  supposed  to  be  by  merchants 
generally,  although  the  fact  that  most  of  them  purchased  their 
goods  on  very  short  time  always  made  them  favorite  customers 
in  this  market.  Those  who  held  encumbered  real  eetate  are 


THE  RESURRECTION.  335 

pinched  the  most  by  their  losses ;  but  even  those  are  likely  to 
be  able  to  weather  the  storm  without  sacrificing  their  property 
at  its  present  depreciated  value,  by  the  aid  of  the  liberal  exten- 
sions which  their  creditors  have  readily  accepted." 

And  this  exhibit  of  loss  was  great,  in  comparison  with  that 
of  any  other  line  of  trade,  or  even  of  all  combined,  so  far  as 
Eastern  debts  were  concerned. 

The  situation  was  the  most  embarrassing  for  the  smaller  busi- 
ness men  and  women — those  who  had  been  engaged  in  the 
smaller  retail  trade,  with  a  capital  of  five  thousand  dollars  or 
less,  upon  which  they  had  traded  successfully,  without  credit, 
in  what  we  may  call  the  pre-igneous  period.  All  that  they  had 
was  swallowed  up.  TVith  no  bank  account,  no  credit,  no  loca- 
tion, they  were  in  sorry  plight,  and  knew  not  which  way  to 
turn  for  relief.  In  this  extremity  many  of  them  held  two  or 
three  meetings  in  the  Court-house  Square,  and  resolved  that  a 
portion  of  the  relief  fund  should  be  placed  at  their  service,  but 
the  utter  impossibility  of  such  a  thing  was  too  palpable,  and 
the  movement  died  out  quietly.  Some  of  this  class  obtained 
help  from  friends  to  start  again  in  an  humble  way,  but  the  ma- 
jority had  not  been  able  to  re-commence  as  we  go  to  press. 
Many  of  these  were  genuine  objects  of  pity.  They  wanted  to 
earn  a  legitimate  livelihood,  but  were  unable  to  do  so,  while  those 
higher  and  lower  than  they,  in  the  business  scale,  found  little 
trouble  in  starting  again.  As  a  class,  these  were  the  last  to 
resume  business,  and  on  them  the  calamity  laid  its  heaviest 
baud- 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EECONSTEUCTION. 

Business  on  the  lake-front — Wooden  and  brick  structures — Loss  of  time — 
Old  customers  and  new  friends — Railroad  earnings — Price  of  lum- 
ber— The  fire  limits — How  shall  the  city  be  rebuilt? 

/CONFIDENCE  once  restored,  business  men  proceeded 
>-^  with  renewed  energy  in  the  work  of  reconstruction.  A 
drive  through  the  burned  district  in  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber showed  very  many  of  the  edifices  partially  rebuilt,  while 
from  the  sites  of  many  more  the  rubbish  had  been  cleared  away 
and  workmen  were  busy  in  re-arranging  foundation  lines,  and 
preparing  to  raise  other  piles  more  durable,  if  less  imposing, 
than  those  which  had  so  recently  succumbed  to  the  fiery  ele- 
ment. On  several  sites  temporary  wooden  structures  had  been 
thrown  up,  and  "shingles"  announced  that  the  occupants  were 
ready  to  do  business.  These  were,  however,  of  the  irregular 
order.  The  general  current  of  endeavor  evidently  was  in  the 
direction  of  getting  back  permanently  to  the  old  place  as 
quickly  as  possible.  Hence,  those  who  could  not  obtain  quar- 
ters westward  and  southward  of  the  burned  district,  had  con- 
structed temporary  wooden  buildings  on  the  lake-shore,  on 
what  was  known  as  Lake  Park,  on  the  base-ball  grounds  to 
the  northward  of  that  tract,  and  on  Dearborn  Park.  The 
whole  of  this  area  was  covered  with  frame  structures,  placed 
(336) 


FIRST  NATIONAL   BANK  BEFORE  THE  FIRE. 


CROSBYS'  OPERA  HOUSE. 


RECONSTRUCTION.  337 

there  by  permission  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  the  altitude 
being  limited  to  twenty  feet,  and  the  tenure  to  one  year.  Most 
of  these  places  were  already  open,  and  there  the  wholesale  dry 
goods,  and  groceries,  and  boots  and  shoes,  and  iron  and  hard- 
ware merchants  displayed  their  goods,  as  close  to  the  old  theater 
of  operations  as  possible,  yet  not  so  close  as  to  interfere  with 
the  work  of  reconstruction.  The  work  of  rebuilding  was  pro- 
ceeding with  almost  equal  rapidity  in  the  North  Division. 

With  all  this,  there  were  a  great  many  indications  of  radical 
changes  in  the  direction  of  business.  It  seemed  probable  that 
while  the  heavier  wholesale  houses  would  return  to  the  old 
quarters,  large  numbers  of  the  lesser  dealers,  the  banks,  etc., 
particularly  those  handling  the  lighter  classes  of  goods,  would 
become  permanently  located  much  farther  south  than  hereto- 
fore, while  much  of  the  commission  business  would  remain  in 
the  West  Division,  instead  of  re-concentrating  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  South  Water  Street.  The  indication  was  that  the 
center  of  the  business  portion  of  the  city  would  be  removed  at 
once  some  five  or  six  blocks  farther  southward  by  the  fire;  it 
was  already  spreading  slowly  in  that  direction  previous  to  the 
date  of  the  great  conflagration. 

One  noticeable  feature  of  the  situation  was^the  time  lost  in 
traveling  arhong  business  men.  Somefhad  settled  down  in  the 
South  Division,  and  others  in  the  West,  and  the  journey  be- 
tween the  two  sections  was  a  long  one,  while  it  was  not  of  the 
most  pleasant,  as  the  streets  were  filled  with  heavily  laden  vehi- 
cles, and  deep  in  mud  with  every  shower.  Then  there  was 
considerable  inequality  in  prices,  a  fact  that  was  not  materially 
remedied  by  the  establishment  of  several  branch  offices,  by 
bankers  and  others,  in  that  division  in  which  the  main  office 
was  not  located.  The  effect  of  this  scatteration  was  shown  in 
29 


338  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

the  middle  of  November,  by  the  sale  of  New  York  exchange 
between  banks,  on  the  same  day — in  one  place  it  sold  at  par,  in 
another  at  a  premium  of  three-quarters  of  one  per  cent. 

But  there  was  one  cheering  fact  amid  all  this;  and  that  was 
that  the  merchants  were  all  busy,  the  orders  pouring  in  upon 
them  from  all  quarters  to  such  an  extent  as  to  tax  all  their 
powers  to  supply  the  demand.  Many  of  them  were  actually 
bare  of  stock,  though  large  consignments  had  been  sent  from 
the  East;  but  the  delivery  of  a  considerable  proportion  of  these 
goods  was  delayed  by  the  fact  that  the  railroads,  too,  were 
taxed  to  the  utmost,  and  one  or  two  lines  were  fairly  glutted 
with  merchandise.  It  was  remarked  by  many  of  the  leading 
merchants  that  none  of  their  old  customers  in  the  country  had 
forsaken  them  to  try  the  advantages  proffered  by  a  thousand 
and  one  other  places,  each  of  which  endeavored  to  seize  the 
"opportunity"  to  make  itself  great  by  catching  a  few  of  the 
crumbs  that  had  fallen  from  the  table  of  Chicago.  More  than 
this:  not  a  few  remarked  that  buyers  who  had  previously 
hovered  between  Chicago  and  other  points,  purchasing  a  little 
here,  and  a  little  there,  now  sent  all  their  orders  to  the  men 
who  had  suffered  so  much,  and  borne  it  so  bravely. 

The  following  statement  of  the  October  earnings  of  a  num- 
ber of  prominent  Western  railroads  shows  the  effect  of  the  fire 
in  Chicago : 


1871. 

$  459,577 

1870. 

$  475,628 

1,005,475 

828,447 

Illinois  Central,   

761,965 
392,500 

903,225 
355,899 

Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern, 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,        .... 
Toledo,  Wabash  &  Western, 

1,395,041 
841,150 
600,204 
800,000 

1,287,778 
908,313 
451,291 
719,523 

532,802 

511,477 

RECONSTRUCTION.  339 

The  character  of  many  of  the  structures  erected  was  neces- 
sarily temporary.  So  much  lumber  was  used  that  the  price  of 
common  descriptions  had  advanced  more  than  thirty  per  cent, 
within  a  month — from  $15  to  $20  per  thousand  feet — though 
a  part  of  the  advance  was  credited  to  the  destruction  of  the 
forests  by  the  fires  that  raged  so  extensively  in  the  lumber  regions 
of  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  about  the  time  of  the  Chicago  dis- 
aster. So  many  wooden  buildings  had  been  run  up  that  a  uni- 
versal protest  went  out  against  the  erection  of  any  more,  in 
those  districts  where  other  buildings  would  be  imperiled  by 
their  contiguity.  Then  ensued  a  lengthy  newspaper  discussion 
of  the  case,  and  the  general  expression  of  sentiment  that  no  more 
wooden  buildings  should  be  permitted  to  be  erected  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  fire  limits  were  ex- 
tended by  the  Common  Council  after  the  fire.  They  will  prob- 
ably be  still  further  extended  to  include  the  \diole  city. 

That  a  stringent  fire  ordinance  is  wanted  in  Chicago,  none 
can  doubt.  Brick  buildings  are  not  indestructible  by  fire,  but 
they  do  not  feed  the  flames  like  wooden  ones ;  and  are  not  only 
safer,  but  cheaper  when  the  ultimate  cost  is  taken  into  the 
account.  No  other  city  of  the  size  of  Chicago  permits  the 
safety  of  the  whole  to  be  jeopardized  by  frame  structures;  and, 
with  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  good  clay  for  brick-making, 
and  first-class  building  stone  in  her  immediate  neighborhood, 
there  is  no  necessity  for  permitting  this  suicidal  policy  in  the 
future.  With  a  raised  grade,  which  permits  better  drainage, 
and  proper  regulations  concerning  the  erection  of  buildings,  the 
future  Chicago  may  prove  that  she  has  learned  a  valuable  lesson 
from  adversity,  and  show  that  she  had  the  good  sense  to  profit 
by  it. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE   LOSSES   AGAIN. 

Particular  cases  —  Rioted  buildings  destroyed  —  The  Germans  —  How  the 
millionaires  came  out  —  Not  a  vestige  of  a  law  library  left  —  Art  and 
literary  treasures  despoiled  —  Who  lost  and  who  gained  by  the  fire. 


ri^HE  most  noteworthy  buildings  lying  within  the  burnt 
-•-  district,  and  consequently  falling  a  prey  to  the  flames,  are 
comprised  in  the  following  list: 

Churches.  —  Trinity  (Episcopal),  First  Presbyterian,  New 
Jerusalem  Temple  (Swedenborg),  North  Presbyterian,  St. 
James's  (Episcopal),  New  England  (Congregational),  Unity 
(Unitarian),  Grace  (Methodist),  Cathedral  of  the  Holy  Name 
(Roman  Catholic),  St.  Joseph's  (Roman  Catholic),  St.  Mary's 
(Roman  Catholic),  Synagogue  (Hebrew),  St.  Paul's  (Universal- 
ist),  Sisters  of  Mercy  (Convent),  Illinois  Street  (Union),  St. 
Joseph's  Priory. 

Public  Buildings.  —  Court-house  and  City  Hall,  Post-office, 
Water-works,  Historical  Hall,  Chamber  of  Commerce,  United 
States  Warehouses,  South  Side  Gas-works,  North  Side  Gas- 
works, Armory  (police  station),  Elm  Street  Hospital,  Franklin 
School,  Mosely  School,  Lincoln  School,  and  many  smaller 
schools. 

Theaters,  etc.  —  Crosby's  Opera-house,  Hooley's  Opera-house, 

McVicker's  Theater,  Dearborn  Theater,  Farwell  Hall,  Metro- 
(340) 


THE   LOSSES   AGAIN.  341 

|>olitan  Hall,  Crosby's  Music  Hall,  German  House,  Turner 
Hall,  Academy  of  Design,  Wood's  Museum,  Olympic  Theater. 

Hotels  (first  class). — Sherman,  Pacific,  Tremont,  Bigelow, 
Palmer,  Briggs,  St.  James,  Matteson,  Revere,  Metropolitan, 
Nevada,  Clifton,  Adams. 

Railway  Buildings. — Great  Central  Depot,  Michigan  South- 
ern Depot,  Galena  Depot,  Illinois  Central  Freight  Depot, 
Michigan  Central  Freight  Depot,  Galena  Freight  Depot,  Gale- 
na Elevator,  Wheeler's  Elevator,  Illinois  Central  Elevator 
"A,"  Munger  &  Armour's  Elevator,  National  Elevator,  Pull- 
man's Palace  Car  Building. 

Principal  Business  Blocks. — Bookseller's  Row,  Field  &  Lei- 
tei's  Store,  Tribune  Building,  Merchants'  Insurance  Building, 
First  National  Bank,  Union  National  Bank,  Drake-Far  well 
Block,  Sturges'  Building,  Honore  Block,  McCormick's  Reaper 
Works. 

Among  the  heaviest  individual  losers  were  Messrs.  Wm.  B. 
Ogden,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  and  Potter  Palmer;  though  Mr. 
Ogden's  losses  would  scarcely  have  been  felt  by  that  large  capi- 
talist, had  it  not  been  for  the  nearly  simultaneous  destruction 
of  immense  interests  in  the  Wisconsin  pineries,  in  which  he  was 
an  owner  to  the  extent  of  two  million  dollars  or  more.  In 
Chicago  his  principal  losses  were  in  railroad  buildings,  insur- 
ance stock,  and  north-side  real  estate,  which  Mr.  Ogden  made 
a  specialty,  and  which  was  greatly  depreciated  in  value  by  the 
conflagration.  Mr.  McCormick's  losses  also  mounted  into  the 
millions,  as  did  those  of  his  brother,  L.  J.  McCormick.  Each 
of  the  McCormicks  owned  many  stores  and  houses,  and  among 
their  joint  property  was  their  extensive  reaper  works,  which 
contained  at  the  time  two  thousand  finished  reapers  and  a  large 
store  of  unfinished  machines  and  materials.  Potter  Palmer  haa 


342  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

long  been  reputed  to  own  a  mile  of  front  upon  State  Street,  the 
principal  thoroughfare  from  the  river  to  the  south  end  of  the 
city.  Upon  this  avenue  he  had  already  erected  stores  and 
hotels  to  the  value  of  over  three-quarters  of  a  million  of  dollars, 
and  the  Grand  Hotel,  which  would  swell  the  amount  to  two  mil- 
lions, was  already  well  upward  with  its  massive  walls.  Mr. 
Palmer  also  owned  large  interests  in  two  or  three  mercantile 
establishments,  and  was  popularly  understood  to.  have  mort- 
gaged all  his  real  estate  for  carrying  on  his  speculations.  On 
the  day  following  the  fire  it  was  currently  reported  and  gener- 
ally believed  (so  prepared  was  the  popular  mind  for  any  thing 
wonderful)  that  Mr.  Palmer  had  gone  crazy  over  his  losses,  and 
shot  himself  in  a  paroxysm  of  insanity.  Nor  was  this  impres- 
sion dispelled  until,  from  a  town  in  New  York,  whither  Mr. 
Palmer  had  gone  to  attend  the  dying  bed  of  a  parent,  came  his 
clarion  note :  "I  will  rebuild  my  buildings  at  once.  Put  on  an 
extra  force,  and  hurry  up  the  hotel." 

And  within  a  few  days  the  New  York  merchants  received 
his  telegram  announcing,  "The  mercantile  firms  with  which  I 
am  connected,  either  as  special  or  general  partner,  will  pay  in 
full  at  maturity." 

Another  severe  sufferer  was  John  B.  Drake,  proprietor  of  the 
Tremont  Hotel.  His  furniture,  silver,  etc.,  were  very  rich,  and 
his  largest  building  (part  of  the  Drake- Farwell  Block)  had  but 
just  been  re-occupied,  after  its  fatal  destruction  of  one  year  ago. 
But  Drake  was  buoyant,  like  the  rest,  and  was  soon  ensconced 
in  the  biggest  hotel  the  flames  had  left  for  him  to  hire,  and 
had  his  workmen  overhauling  the  warm  bricks  of  the  twice- 
consumed  store. 

It  is  useless,  however,  to  attempt  any  enumeration  of  the 
brilliant  ruins  which  this  unparalleled  disaster  worked.  In  the 


THE   LOSSES  AGAIN.  343 

first  place,  they  are  like  the  goods  in  the  auctioneer's  catalogue, 
"too  numerous  to  mention,"  and  in  the  next  place,  they  will 
not  stay  ruined  long  enough  to  be  caught  and  impaled  in  the 
cabinet  of  the  historian. 

There  were,  however,  many  cases  of  complete  ruin — or,  at 
least,  of  such  sweeping  disaster  that  it  will  take  years,  and  in 
some  cases  more  years  than  the  victim  has  left  in  him,  to  re- 
cover any  thing  like  his  former  foothold.  The  merchants,  as 
a  rule,  fared  as  hard  as  any  equally  numerous  class.  Messrs. 
Field,  Leiter  &  Co.,  the  heaviest  dry  goods  dealers,  saw 
§2,300,000  worth  of  their  goods  dissolve  before  their  eyes,  with 
DO  hope,  at  the  moment,  that  they  would  be  indemnified  for 
any  considerable  fraction  of  its  value.  Messrs.  J.  V.  Farwell 
and  C.  B.  Farwell  (M.  C.),  members  of  the  dry  goods  firm 
which  bears  the  former's  name,  saw  §1,900,000  of  their  stock 
go  the  way  a  similar  amount  had  gone  just  a  year  before.  A 
score  of  other  merchants  could  count  up  losses  scarcely  less  than 
these.  But  large  dealers  have  great  credits  and  great  facilities 
of  other  kinds  for  resuming  business.  It  is  the  smaller  dealers 
who  have  suffered,  proportionately,  the  worst. 

Professional  men  suffered  severely  too — even  those  whose 
homes  were  spared  them.  Many  of  the  physicians  and  all  of 
the  lawyers  had  their  offices  within  the  burnt  district  of  the 
South  Division,  and  therein  were  their  libraries,  apparatus,  and 
all  their  professional  outfit.  The  legal  gentlemen  of  Chicago — 
six  hundred  and  fifty  in  number — lost  over  half  a  million  dol- 
lars worth  of  law  books  alone — all  the  law  books,  in  fact,  that 
there  were  in  the  city.  ^ 

Operators  in  the  great  characteristic  staples  of  Chicago  trade 
— grain,  provisions,  etc. — the  "commission  men,"  or  "Board 
of  Trade  men,"  did  not  suffer  so  severely.  Of  many  of  these 


344  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

the  stock  in  trade  is  of  an  altogether  too  unsubstantial  sort  to 
suffer  much  by  fire.  These  gentlemen,  many  of  them,  deal  in. 
actual  commodities,  but  a  small  proportion  of  which,  fortu- 
nately, was  destroyed  in  this  wreck.  Many  others  deal  so  ex- 
clusively in  "options,"  "puts,"  and  "calls,"  that  a  smart  shower 
in  the  country  during  the  summer  will  make  or  unmake  them 
much  more  completely  than  ever  so  terrible  a  fire  in  Chicago. 
Besides  this  advantage,  the  most  of  your  Board  of  Trade  men 
have  become  so  accustomed  to  the  vicissitudes  of  business  that 
they  bear  the  buffet  ings'  of  fortune  as  well  as  the  prize  fighter 
bears  the  bruises  which  prostrate  another.  So  they  can  count 
themselves  rich  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  they  are  content 
to  be  "ruined"  on  Thursdays  and  Mondays,  and  "come  up 
smiling"  every  time. 

A  class  who  suffered  very  severely  are  the  musicians.  A 
majority  of  them  lived  in  the  ill-fated  North  Division,  and  lost 
their  homes.  Others  lost  the  churches  or  the  theaters  where 
they  principally  earned  their  livelihood.  Others  lost  very  val- 
uable collections  of  books,  music,  and  instruments;  while  those 
who  escaped  with  these,  had  their  public  burned  away  from 
them — that  is,  forced  upon  such  a  course  of  economy  as  should 
very  seriously  interfere  with  the  revenues  of  music  teachers  and 
all  such.  Among  the  prominent  musicians  who  fled  before  the 
fiery  monster  were  Dudley  Buck,  the  celebrated  organist,  who 
has  gone  to  Boston ;  Hans  Balatka,  the  conductor,  gone  to  Mil- 
waukee; A.  J.  Creswold,  organist,  gone  to  St.  Louis;  Alfred 
H.  Pease,  pianist,  gone  to  Buffalo. 

Akin  to  this  subject  is  that  of  art  and  letters  generally. 
Chicago  had  accumulated  a  much  greater  wealth  of  art  treas- 
ures than  the  world  generally  knew  of;  much  greater  than 
any  other  city  of  its  age  ever  amassed.  Besides  the  galleries 


THE   LOSSES   AGAIN.  345 

of  the  Academy  of  Design,  and  the  Opera-house,  there  were 
the  private  collections  of  Albert  Crosby,  which  must  have  been 
worth  $75,000;  those  of  E.  B.  McCagg,  S.  M.  Nickerson,  and 
R.  E.  Moore,  at  least  $50,000  each ;  and  those  of  E.  H.  Shel- 
don, Perry  H.  Smith,  and  others,  which  approximated  these 
values.  The  gallery  of  Mr.  McCagg  contained,  among  its  most 
valuable  works,  Powers'  statue  of  Pocahontas,  and  Healy's 
great  painting  of  the  Conference  at  Hampton  Roads,  both  of 
which  were  lost.  Of  public  libraries,  the  city  had  none  worth 
mourning  after  very  bitterly.  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis  both 
eclipsed  her  in  this  respect.  The  collection  of  the  Historical 
Society — books,  pamphlets,  papers,  and  paintings — was  totally 
destroyed.  It  contained  17,500  bound  volumes,  175,000  pam- 
phlets, and  complete  sets  of  files  of  the  Chicago  newspapers. 
This  collection  embraced  a  complete  record  of  the  history  of 
Chicago  from  its  earliest  days  to  the  present.  In  addition  to 
the  library,  the  society  owned  the  original  draft  of  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation  by  President  Lincoln,  a  complete  set  of 
the  Chicago  battle  flags,  the  Healy  Gallery  of  three  hundred 
paintings,  Diehl's  Hamlet,  Couture's  Prodigal  Son,  and  Volk's 
bust  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  only  one  for  which  Mr.  Lincoln  ever 
gave  a  sitting,  and  the  most  perfect  likeness  of  the  departed 
statesman  then  extant.  We  take  this  memorandum  chiefly 
from  a  pamphlet  recently  published  by  the  society  which  there- 
in felicitates  itself  upon  the  "splendid  fire-proof  building"  iu 
which  its  precious  archives  are  stored! 

Reckoned  by  nationalities,  our  German  fellow-citizens  suf- 
fered the  worst.     They  dwelt  mostly  upon  the  north  side  of  the 
river,  which  the  satirists  were  wont  to  call  Nordseit,  in  their  f 
honor.     They  loved  their  homes,  and  invested  upon  them  their 
savings;  storing  them  with  household  treasures,  and  investing 


346  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

them  with  the  home  comforts  and  luxuries  in  which  the  Ger- 
man, more  than  any  other  European,  delights.  Through  these 
the  billows  of  flame  came  sweeping  on  that  fatal  morning,  a 
hundred  times  more  ruthlessly  and  ruinously  than  the  warlike 
Frenchman  would  have  swept  through  other  German  homes 
had  the  tide  of  battle  turned  otherwise  than  it  did  at  Worth 
and  Saarbruck.  And  a  most  bloody  invader,  and  a  most  piti- 
less forager,  the  fire-fiend  proved  to  be ! 

The  old  saw  that  "it's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any 
good "  did  not  miscarry  in  this  memorable  case.  There  are 
several  classes  who  have  profited  materially  by  the  general 
calamity.  We  have  already  seen  how  the  cartmen  profited, 
temporarily,  during  the  horrible  night  and  day  of  the  fire;  nor 
did  their  profits  soon  cease;  for  there  was  a  vast  deal  of  hauling 
and  shifting  of  personal  effects  following  the  general  upheaval 
of  locations.  The  Relief  Society  had  a  world  of  carting  to  do, 
too,  arffl  the  drays  and  express  wagons  never  had  so  busy  a 
month  before.  Teams  and  heavy  wagons  were  also  in  feverish 
demand  all  winter,  and  the  streets  were  so  full  of  them  as  to  be 
dangerous  to  light  craft  and  pedestrians.  Builders  and  their 
employes,  especially  brick  masons,  profited  by  the  catastrophe, 
as  might  be  expected ;  also  brick-makers,  from  Omaha  to  Phil- 
adelphia, who  sold  out  their  stocks  at  once  at  several  dollars 
per  thousand  advance.  Insurance  agents  reaped  a  harvest 
also,  whatever  may  have  been  the  hardships  of  their  principals 
in  settling  for  losses;  for  every  body  wanted  new  insurance 
after  the  experience  of  the  8th  and  9th.  Lawyers  will  get  plenty 
of  business  at  adjusting  insurance,  managing  land-title  cases,  and 
other  litigation  growing  out  of  the  commercial  earthquake  caused 
by  the  event.  The  county  records  having  been  destroyed  with 
the  Court-house,  and  all  legal  titles  to  real  estate  having  thus 


THE   LOSSES  AGAIN.  347 

been  seriously  impaired,  the  lawyers  will  have  plenty  of  jobs 
at  nursing  into  life  the  faint  glimmers  of  titles  now  remaining, 
and  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  abstract  books  of  two  or  three 
firms  devoted  to  that  business.  These  archives  were,  fortu- 
nately, saved  from  the  general  wreck,  and  containing,  as  they 
do,  complete  chains  of  title,  from  the  original  Government 
patent  down  to  the  time  of  the  latest  transfer,  are  expected  to 
yield  not  only  much  benefit  to  the  public,  but  comfortable  for- 
tunes to  their  owners. 

Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  classes  who  will  be 
pecuniary  gainers  by  the  great  fire;  but  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that,  with  the  classes  already  mentioned^  the  retail  news  men, 
some  of  whom  made  thousands  of  dollars  during  the  first  fort- 
night after  the  fire,  the  shop-keepers  of  the  West  Division,  the 
holders  of  leases  who  sold  out  at  large  bonuses,  and  the  dealers 
in  safes  (each  of  whom  had  "  the  only  strictly  fire-proof"  after 
the  fire),  and  all  others  similarly  favored,  there  are  not  less  than 
75,000  persons,  out  of  the  300,000  remaining  in  Chicago  after 
the  fire,  who  will  be  better  off  next  spring  than  if  the  city  had 
not  burned.  These  did  not,  except  in  a  very  few  isolated  in- 
stances, willfully  extort  profit  out  of  the  misfortunes  of  their 
fellows,  but  merely  gained,  incidentally,  by  having  something 
to  sell,  labor  or  property,  the  demand  for  which  was  enhanced 
by  the  crisis.  The  opposite  rule  of  course  prevailed  much  more 
extensively ;  and  in  general  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  severest 
losers  by  the  fire  were  those  who  had  most,  or  had  ventured 
most;  those  whose  property  was  in  the  form  of  buildings,  or 
stocks  of  goods,  or  investments  in  the  future  of  Chicago;  and 
those  whose  trade  or  industry  depended  upon  the  patronage  of 
the  luxurious  classes. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

INCIDENTS  AND   CURIOSITIES. 

Oases  in  the  desert — A  dwelling  saved  with  cider — Thrilling  scene  in  the 
tunnel — How  the  heat  burnt  up  iron  columns  and  left  butter  un- 
melted — The  man  at  the  crib — Human  nature — Good  and  bad  phases 
— Drawing  the  long  bow. 

TTUNDREDS  of  incidents  of  the  Great  Conflagration  might 
.  -*—*-  be  related,  in  addition  to  the  hundreds  which  have  already 
been  told  in  the  narratives  of  eye-witnesses.  Indeed,  there  is 
no  limit  to  the  stories,  either  thrilling  or  curious,  which  are 
truthfully  told,  illustrating  the  wonderfully  rapid  progress  and 
terrible  fury  of  the  flames,  or  the  peculiarities  of  human  nature 
under  the  influence  of  extreme  excitement.  Unfortunately 
there  is  a  limit  to  our  space,  which  can  not  be  devoted  exclusively 
to  these  incidents  at  the  expense  of  the  more  important  events 
accompanying  or  following  the  conflagration. 

One  of  the  most  curious  features  of  the  fire  was  the  escape 
of  two  houses  in  the  midst  of  the  burnt  district  of  the  North 
Division.  One  of  these  was  the  residence  of  Mahlon  D.  Ogden, 
brother  of  Wm.  B.  Ogden,  and  himself  an  extensive  property 
holder.  His  house  faces  Washington  Park ;  but  so  doos  Robert 
Collyer's  Church,  and  so  did  other  buildings  now  no  more,  which 
had  the  park  to  the  windward,  and  had  also  the  benefit  of  stone 

walls,  whereas  the  Ogden  mansion  is  of  wood,  with  an  elaborate 
(348) 


INCIDENTS   AND   CURIOSITIES.  349 

French  roof  and  several  combustible  out-buildings.  The  park 
in  front,  a  mere  square,  had  been  devoted  to  the  city  by  Mr. 
Ogden,  many  years  ago;  and  it  proved  a  valuable  breastwork 
against  the  fire  on  this  occasion,  as  if  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  wisdom  and  generosity  of  the  gift,  and  as  a  hint  to  other 
landlords  to  do  likewise.  It  was  not,  however,  without  a  severe 
struggle  that  the  falling  brands  were  extinguished,  and  the 
mansion,  with  its  valuable  contents,-  saved  from  destruction. 
As  another  curiosity,  one  of  the  elegant  conservatories  of  Mr. 
E.  B.  McCagg,  directly  west  of  Mr.  Ogden's  house,  and  close 
upon  Lasalle  Street,  went  through  the  fire  without  the  cracking 
of  a  glass  or  the  withering  of  a  leaf,  while  the  other  green-house 
to  the  leeward,  and  the  mansion,  in  the  center  of  the  spacious 
grounds — both  seemingly  more  protected  than  the  other — were 
consumed. 

The  other  house  mentioned  is  that  of  a  policeman  named 
Bellinger,  which  had  apparently  little  advantage  of  isolation, 
but  was  saved  by  dint  of  much  exertion  on  the  part  of  its  occu- 
pant, aided  by  a  favorable  freak  of  the  flames.  Bellinger  was 
fortunate  enough  to-  have  a  small  quantity  of  water  on  hand 
when  the  supply  from  the  Water-works  gave  out.  He  tore  up 
a  section  of  sidewalk,  and  determined  to  shed  the  last  drop — 
not  of  his  blood,  but  of  his  water,  which,  in  such  a  crisis,  was 
still  more  precious — in  defense  of  his  castle.  This  he  did  to 
the  best  advantage,  that  is,  reserving  it  until  a  spark  alighted 
on  the  shingles.  He  stood  his  ground  manfully  until  the  red 
demon  approached  threateningly  near,  and  then  he  redoubled 
his  vigilance.  Of  this  there  was  need,  for  now  the  sparks  and 
brands  fell  thicker  and  faster,  and  his  scant  ladlefuls  of  water 
hissed  and  went  up  in  puifs  of  steam  as  they  struck  the  blister- 
ing shingles.  By  and  by  the  last  ladleful  was  gone,  and  the 


350  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

flames  had  not  yet  ceased  to  rage  around  him.  If  he  only  had 
a  little  more  water — a  bucketful  merely— he  thought  he  could 
save  a  home  for  his  wife  and  little  ones;  the  home  which  he 
had  been  struggling  so  long  to  build  foi\thcm.  The  wish  did 
him  honor,  and  the  divine  source  of  it  sent  him  a  thought  which 
proved  the  wish's  realization.  In  the  cellar  was  a  barrel  of 
cider,  which  he  had  lately  got  in  to  drink  with  the  winter's 
nuts  and  apples.  He  rightly  judged  that  the  red  guest  who 
now  threatened  his  house  with  a  visit  wanted  that  cider  worse 
than  he  did.  To  speak  in  plainer  and  more  policeman-like 
terms,  he  knew  that  cider  would  quench  fire  as  well  as  water, 
and  that  his  cider  was  what  was  wanted  on  the  roof  at  that 
time.  He  called  to  the  family  to  draw  and  bring  to  him  all  the 
contents  of  the  cask.  It  was  done.  The  libation  was  poured 
out  (in  the  right  spots),  and  the  home  was  saved. 

There  was  a  thrilling  scene  in  the  Washington  Street  tunnel. 
About  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  Monday,  while  the  tun- 
nel was  filled  with  people  rushing  wildly  in  both  directions,  the 
gas-works  blew  up,  stopping  immediately  the  supply  of  gas, 
and  causing  total  darkness  throughout  the  long  and  narrow 
passage.  The  situation  was  a  terrible  one.  The  sudden  dark- 
ness, the  great  excitement  under  which  all  the  persons  were 
laboring,  and  the  fact  that  many  were  bearing  articles  of  furni- 
ture, etc.,  with  which  it  would  be  dangerous  to  collide,  all 
served  to  increase  the  danger  of  a  panic  such  as  should  inevita- 
bly result  in  the  crushing  and  killing  of  many  persons — per- 
haps in  detaining  them  until  all  should  be  suffocated  by  a  blast 
of  fiame  and  smoke.  But  some  one  with  a  quick  judgment 
and  stentorian  voice  cried  out,  "  Keep  to  the  right ! "  and  so 
every  one  did,  the  word  "  to  the  right ! "  being  passed  along 


INCIDENTS   AND   CURIOSITIES.  351 

from  mouth  to  mouth.  But  there  was  not  much  more  going 
through  the  tunnel  to  the  eastward  that  night. 

The  fact  that  building  stone  was  every-where  baked  and 
blislered  into  mere  chips,  even  where  it  was  used  only  for  side- 
walks or  foundations,  attests  to  the  fearful  heat  which  prevailed 
cvery-where.  But  in  the  interior  of  buildings  the  fervor  was 
unprecedented ;  as  witness  the  melting  of  the  great  Court-house 
bell,  the  burning  up  of  many  safes,  so  that  they  could  be  punctured 
with  a  single  touch  of  the  crowbar,  and  the  fusion  of  metals 
generally.  In  the  stores  of  Messrs.  Heath  &  Milligan,  on  Ran- 
dolph Street,  filled  with  paints  and  oils,  the  temperature  was 
above  3000  degrees,  as  shown  by  the  melting  of  white  lead 
and  other  stores  requiring  that  degree  of  heat  to  fuse  them. 
How  much  hotter  it  became,  there  was  no  index  to  determine; 
but  this  is  known  :  that  large  masses  of  iron,  such  as  iron  col- 
umns, and  the  framework  of  a  large  elevator,jwere  literally  burned 
up,  so  that  no  trace  of  them  could  be  found :  but  (what  will 
strike  some  unthinking  ones  as  curious)  the  little  wire  ropes 
which  were  used  to  work  the  elevator  were  not  seriously  in- 
jured. Iron  wire  is,  owing  to  the  peculiar  process  by  which 
it  is  spun,  one  of  the  least  fusible  or  combustible  of  substances. 

The  contents  of  hundreds  of  safes  were  utterly  consumed. 
Indeed,  this  was  the  rule  with  all  safes  not  in  vaults ;  while  all 
fairly  built  brick  vaults  brought  every  thing  intrusted  to  them 
out  safely.  A  box  of  matches  and  linen  coat  came  out  of  the  Tri- 
bune vault  as  good  as  new,  and  a  jar  of  butter  preserved  its  integ- 
rity completely  through  three  or  four  days  of  fire  in  the  vault  of 
Ihe  Fidelity  Deposit  Company,  without  once  lapsing  into  the 
melting  mood.  This  fire  has  shown  that  brick  is  the  most  fire- 
proof of  building  materials;  that  brick  and  air  are  the  only 
trustworthy  non-conductors  of  heat,  and  that  iron  is,  by  reason 


352  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

of  its  tendency  to  swell  and  warp,  a  bad  material  to  use  for 
floors,  girders  or  lintels,  in  the  erection  of  large  buildings. 

The  "  Man  at  the  Crib  "  is  a  character  dear  to  public  esteem 
in  Chicago,  though  not  one  in  ten  thousand  of  the  citizens 
has  ever  seen  him.  They  all  know  that  he  is  always  there  in 
his  wave-washed  prison,  two  miles  out  into  the  lake,  watching 
the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  from  New  Year  to  New  Year.  On 
this  night  his  vigils  were  directed  toward  the  atmosphere  above 
instead  of  the  water  below,  for  even  there  his  view  of  the 
burning  city,  which  would  otherwise  have  been  splendid,  was 
shut  out  first  by  black  smoke  and  then  by  the  driving  shower  of 
fire  brands  and  livid  coals  which  were  falling  about  him,  three 
miles  from  their  place  of  starting.  The  man  had  one  advantage 
over  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  on  that  dread  night.  There 
was  no  danger  of  his  water  supply  giving  out ;  and  he  used  it 
freely,  to  subdue  the  flames  from  which  even  his  lonely,  iso- 
lated perch  was  not  exempt.  If  the  house  had  burned  down, 
even  to  the  water's  edge,  the  accident  would  not  have  affected 
the  water  supply ;  but  it  would  have  been  uncomfortable  for 
the  "  Man  at  the  Crib,"  unless  he  could  have  got  his  boat  out 
betimes. 

As  already  remarked,  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of 
the  conflagration  was  the  suddenly  clear  insight  which  it  af- 
forded of  the  innermost  recesses  of  men's  hearts.  If  a  man  was 
a  coward,  or  a  selfish  knave,  he  could  not  conceal  it  fiom  the 
gaze  of  his  fellow-men  on  that  dread  night ;  while  if  he  was  a 
hero  (as  many  and  many  proved  to  be,  let  it  be  said  to  the 
credit  of  humanity !)  his  sterling  metal  shone  clear  and  bright 
in  the  glare  and  heat  of  the  all-assaying  flames.  Nor  did  the 
gentility  or  social  standing  of  the  man  always  afford  the  true 
clue  to  the  result.  The  Rev.  Robert  Collyer  told  in  the  hear- 


INCIDENTS   AND   CURIOSITIES.  353 

ing  of  the  writer,  that  during  the  small  hours  of  Monday 
morning,  while  all  was  panic  and  terror,  and  women  and  chil- 
dren and  invalids  were  in  danger,  and  heroes  were  developing 
out.  of  simple  scftils  who  had  never  suspected  themselves  of  he- 
roism before,  he  saw  "the  biggest  man  in  the  city"  scampering 
away  at  his  best  pace  and  exclaiming,  "It's  all  going  to  burn 
up,  and  I  'm  going  to  get  out  of  this  as  soon  as  I  can."  "And 
so  raying,"  added  Mr.  Collyer,  "  he  kept  on  running  toward 
the  north,  and  for  aught  I  know  he  is  running  yet." 

The  opposite  kind  of  cases  are  more  pleasant  to  contemplate. 
One  of  the  city  journals  puts  such  a  one  on  record  in  this  lan- 
guage : 

"On  Monday  evening,  a  knot  of  men,  from  35  to  40  years 
of  age,  stood  on  Michigan  Avenue,  watching  the  fire  as  it 
fought  its  way  southward  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind.  They 
were  looking  grimy  and  dejected  enough,  until  another,  a  broad- 
shouldered  man  of  middle  height,  with  a  face  that  might  have 
belonged  to  one  of  the  Cheeryble  brothers  shining  through  the 
over-spreading  dust  and  soot,  approached  them,  and  clapping 
one  of  their  number  on  the  shoulder,  exclaimed  cheerfully: 
'Well,  James,  we  are  all  gone  together.  Last  night  I  was 
worth  a  hundred  thousand,  and  so  were  you.  Now  where  are 
we?'  'Gone,'  returned  James.  Then  followed  an  interchange, 
from  which  it  appeared  that  the  members  of  the  group  were 
young  merchants,  worth  from  $50,000  to  §150,000.  After  this, 
said  the  first  speaker,  '  Well,  Jim,  I  have  a  home  left,  and  my 
family  are  safe;  I  have  a  barrel  of  flour,  some  bushels  of  pota- 
toes and  other  provisions  laid  in  for  the  winter;  and  now,  Jim, 
I'm  going  to  fill  my  house  to-night  with  these  poor  fellows,' 
turning  to  the  sidewalks  crowded  with  fleeing  poor,  'chuck  full 
from  cellar  to  garret!'  The  blaze  of  the  conflagration  revealed 
30 


354  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

something  worth  seeing  in  that  man's  breast.  Possibly  the 
road  to  his  heart  may  have  been  choked  with  rubbish  before. 
If  so,  the  fire  had  burned  it  clear,  till  it  shone  like  one  of  the 
streets  of  burnished  gold  which  he  will  one  day*  walk." 

A  few  items  are  worthy  of  noting  down  for  their  personal 
interest  merely.  Col.  John  Hay  writes  to  the  New  York 
Tribune  concerning  Mr.  Robert  Lincoln,  son  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent: "He  entered  his  law  office  about  daylight  on  Monday 
morning,  after  the  flames  had  attacked  the  building,  opened  the 
vault,  and  piled  upon  a  table  cloth  the  most  valuable  papers 
then  slung  the  pack  over  his  shoulder,  and  escaped  amid  a 
shower  of  falling  firebrands.  He  walked  up  Michigan  Avenue 
with  his  load  on  his  back,  and  stopped  at  the  mansion  of  John 
Young  Scammon,  where  they  breakfasted  with  a  feeling  of  per- 
fect security.  Lincoln  went  home  with  his  papers,  and  before 
noon  the  house  of  Scammon  was  in  ruins,  the  last  which  was 
sacrificed  by  the  lake  side."  Mr.  Scammon's  house,  it  may  be 
mentioned,  was  iu  the  famous  Terrace  Row,  spoken  of  in  Mr. 
White's  sketch  (Chap.  V.),  as  were  also  the  residences  of  Ex- 
Lieutenant-Governor  Bross,  of  the  Tribune,  and  S.  C.  Griggs, 
of  the  book  trade.  It  was  a  row  of  Illinois-marble  fronts,  five 
lofty  stories  in  height,  and  eclipsing  Buckingham  Palace  in  ele- 
gance, according  to  the  Rev.  Newman  Hall,  of  London. 

Among  those  who  fled  from  the  fire  was  Hon.  Lyman 
Trumbull  of  the  United  States  Senate,  who  escaped,  with  a 
trunk  full  of  clothing  only,  from  the  Clifton  House,  where  he 
was  boarding.  There  were  many  theatrical  and  musical  exhib- 
itors at  the  hotels  when  the  fire  came  along  and  settled  their 
bills  for  them.  Theodore  Thomas  .and  his  famous  orchestra 
•were  at  the  St.  James  Hotel,  and  escaped  with  their  instruments 
only.  Mrs.  Lander,  the  tragedienne,  was  also  among  the  fugi- 


INCIDENTS  AND  CURIOSITIES.  355 

tives.  Mrs.  Abby  Sage  (McFarland)  Richardson,  whose  griefs 
and  grievances  have  made  her  name  familiar  to  the  country, 
was  sojourning  in  the  city  at  the  time,  and  intending  to  become 
a  permanent  resident ;  but  the  fire  altered  her  determination  in 
this  regard,  and  she  fled  to  New  York. 

Many  celebrated  persons  own  property  in  Chicago,  and  lost 
more  or  less,  according  to  its  location;  for  instance,  General 
Buckner  and  Ex-Governor  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky,  among 
noted  Southerners,  and  Madame  Parepa  Rosa,  Mile.  Nilsson, 
Mr.  Joseph  Jefierson,  and  Mr.  Ole  Bull,  among  musical  and 
dramatic  celebrities.  The  two  ladies  named,  nevertheless,  con- 
tributed liberally  to  the  relief  of  those  made  destitute  by  the 
fire. 

So  far  as  wonderful  and  startling  incidents  go,  it  would  have 
been  better  (at  least  more  thrilling  to  the  reader),  if  this 
account  could  have  been  made  out  on  the  week  of  the  fire ;  for 
then  a  thousand  blood-curdling  stories  were  passing  current, 
which  have  since  been  proved  to  be  without  foundation.  Here 
is  one  of  them : 

"A  wealthy  railroad  man,  on  the  north  side,  was  holding  a 
party  at  his  residence  when  the  conflagration  commenced. 
When  his  house  became  endangered  by  the  fire  drawing  near, 
he  dispatched  his  wife  and  children  to  a  place  of  safety,  and 
'then  commenced — with  a  select  few — a  bacchanalian  revel. 
When  the  fire  became  unbearable,  the  party  moved  to  the  front 
steps  of  the  mansion  with  their  bottles  and  glasses.  There 
they  continued  the  horrible  carnival,  their  demoniac  yells  and 
wild  laughter  becoming  louder  and  more  boisterous  as  the  fire 
became  more  threatening.  On  the  south  side,  the  distilleries 
were  running  their  liquors  from  the  buildings.  The  gutters 
were  full  of  the  raw  spirits,  while  men  were  flocking  to  them 


356  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

with  every  conceivable  manner  of  vessels,  some  even  wallow- 
ing in  the  liquor.  In  some  places  the  fire  communicated  with 
the  alcohol,  and  the  street  became  instantly  a  burning  sheet  of 
flame.  In  some  cases  the  men  drank  freely  and  immoderately, 
sunk  into  a  drunken  torpor,  and  only  awoke  from  their  insen- 
sibility to  find  themselves  irretrievably  enveloped  in  flames." 

The  writer  of  the  above  has  been  dubbed  the  champion  liar 
by  some  of  the  newspapers;  yet  he  is  altogether  excelled  by  a 
writer  in  an  Illinois  newspaper,  who  requires  his  readers  to 
swallow  (and  in  all  probability  they  did)  the  following  yarn: 

"The  scene  now  manifested  beggars  all  description.  Noth- 
ing like  it  since  the  burning  of  Moscow.  The  only  elevator 
standing  is  burning  underneath  its  pier.  The  fire  is  still  burn- 
ing and  spreading  west.  Eight  hundred  persons  were  smoth- 
ered to  death  in  Washington  Street  tunnel.  Thirteen  hundred 
prisoners  in  the  Bridewell  were  left  to  suffocate:  not  one 
escaped!  Seventeen  men  were  shot  who  were  caught  firing 
buildings.  The  whole  has  been  the  act  of  an  incendiary  clique. 
People  are  dying  for  want  of  water;  nothing  but  the  lake  re- 
mains with  which  they  can  quench  their  thirst,  and  that  is  cov- 
ered with  dead  bodies,  oil,  filth,  etc.  Fifteen  thousand  people 
to-night  lay  outdoors  without  blankets  to  shelter  them.  The 
Journal,  Tribune,  and  Times  establishments  are  among  the 
ruins.  There  is  not  a  newspaper  left  in  the  city.  Potter  • 
Palmer's  loss  is  over  four  millions  of  dollars.  Every  Insur- 
ance Company  in  the  United  States  is  ruined,  and  will  not  be 
called  on  to  pay  the  losses.  What  the  people  want  is  some- 
thing to  keep  them  from  starving.  The  towns  along  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  are  doing  nobly.  Can  not  you  get  up  a 
car-load  and  send  them  to-day.  Any  thing  will  do  that  can  be 
eaten,  There  is  not  one  hundred  buildings  left  within  three 


INCIDENTS  AND   CURIOSITIES.  357 

miles  of  the  Court-house  in  any  direction.     The  loss  of  lives  is 
now  estimated  at  between  9000  and  10,000." 

We  can  perhaps  excuse  this  writer's  enthusiasm  in  killing 
off  thirteen  hundred  persons  in  the  Bridewell  (two  miles  to 
windward  of  Chicago),  and  eight  hundred  more  in  the  tunnel, 
as  his  object  was  obviously  to  excite  sympathy,  bring  in  the 
provisions,  and  (incidentally)  to  furnish  something  relishable 
for  the  patrons  of  his  paper;  but  he  ought,  in  the  interest  of 
the  public  health,  to  have  forborne  to  strew  the  surface  of  the 
lake  with  "dead  bodies,  oil,  etc.,"  thereby  injuring  greatly  the 
quality  of  the  only  obtainable  water  supply ! 

In  the  art  of  drawing  the  long  bow,  the  clergymen  were 
scarcely  behind  the  newspaper  writers.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Eddy 
went  from  Chicago  to  Indianapolis,  whence  he  spread  a  fear- 
fully exaggerated  story  of  the  situation  in  Chicago;  and  in 
Baltimore  he  stood  up  in  the  pulpit  and  told  his  hearers  (before 
asking  them  to  contribute  their  money)  how  he  "  saw  the  black- 
enecl  corpses  of  robbers  and  incendiaries  hanging  to  gibbets," 
whereas  no  such  hanging  took  place,  except  in  the  imagination 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Eddy  and  other  persons  of  excitable  tempera- 
ments. One  of  the  several  "histories"  of  the  conflagration, 
written  by  a  Chicago  clergyman  of  great  piety,  treats  the 
hangings  as  actual  facts,  and  solemnly  asserts  that  five  hundred 
children  were  born  on  the  streets  and  prairies  during  the  night 
of  Monday.  This  last  statement  is  not  so  bad  an  exaggeration 
as  the  others;  for  it  is  a  matter  of  fact,  or  at  least  founded 
upon  a  very  intelligent  estimate,  that  more  than  one  hundred 
women  were  brought  to  labor  by  the  excitement  and  exertions 
of  those  fearful  nights.  Doctor  Paul,  who  himself  had  six 
cases  (another  physician  having  eight),  estimates  the  whole 
number  at  one  hundred  and  fifty. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

INCIDENTS  AND   CURIOSITIES — CONTINUED. 

Remarkable  revelation — Scripture  for  the  occasion — Married  in  the  smoke 
of  the  flames — How  Robert  Collyer  and  his  people  fought  for  their 
church — Grandmother's  rocking-chair — How  a  coal-dealer  saved  his 
pile — Fire  as  a  curative  agency — More  about  the  degree  of  heat — 
The  divorce  business,  etc. 

AS  a  curiosity,  this  incident,  which  is  strictly  authentic,  is 
worth  recording :  Among  the  ruins  of  the  Western  News 
Company's  establishment,  where  an  immense  stock  of  periodi- 
cals and  books  was  reduced  to  ashes,  there  was  found  a  single 
leaf  of  a  quarto  Bible,  charred  around  the  edges.  It  contained 
the  first  chapter  of  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  which  opens 
with  the  following  words :  "  How  doth  the  city  sit  solitary  that 
Avas  full  of  people !  how  is  she  become  as  a  widow !  she  that  was 
great  among  the  nations  and  princess  among  the  provinces,  how 
is  she  become  tributary!  She  weepeth  sore  in  the  night,  and 
her  tears  are  on  her  cheeks:  among  all  her  lovers  she  hath 
none  to  comfort  her."  And  that  was  the  only  fragment  of  lit- 
erature saved  from  the  News  Company's  great  depot. 

In  elaboration  of  this  idea,  the  Chicago  Times  commenced  its 
first  issue  after  the  fire  with  this  scriptural  quotation,  which 
many  will  say  was  written  with  a  prescience  of  Chicago's  ca- 
lamity : 

.    .    .     Th«  merchants  of  the  earth  are  waxed  rich  through  the  abun- 
dance of  her  delicacies. 
(368) 


INCIDENTS   AND   CURIOSITIES.  359 

How  much  she  has  glorified  herself,  and  lived  deliciously,  so  much  sor- 
row and  torment  give  her;  for  she  saith  in  her  heart,  I  sit  a  queen  and 
am  no  widow,  and  shall  see  no  sorrow. 

.    .    .     She  shall  be  utterly  burned  with  fire.     .     .    . 

And  the  kings  of  the  earth  .  .  .  shall  bewail  her,  and  lament  for 
her  when  they  shall  see  the  smoke  of  her  burning, 

Standing  afar  off  for  fear  of  her  torment,  and  saying,  Alas,  alas,  that 
great  city,  that  mighty  city !  for  in  one  hour  is  thy  judgment  come. 

And  the  merchants  of  the  earth  shall  weep,  and  mourn  over  her,  for  no 
man  buyeth  their  merchandise  any  more : 

The  merchandise  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  and  of  pearls, 
and  fine  linen,  and  purple,  and  silk,  and  scarlet,  and  all  thyne  wood,  and 
all  manner  vessels  of  ivory,  and  all  manner  vessels  of  most  precious  wood, 
and  of  brass,  and  iron,  and  marble : 

And  cinnamons,  and  odors,  and  ointments,  and  frankincense,  and  wine, 
and  oil,  and  fine  flour,  and  wheat,  and  beasts,  and  sheep,  and  horses,  and 
chariot?,  and  slaves,  and  souls  of  men ; 

.  .  .  The  merchants  of  these  things,  which  were  made  rich  by  her, 
shall  stand  afar  off  ...  weeping  and  wailing, 

And  saying,  Alas,  alas,  that  great  city,  that  was  clothed  in  fine  linen, 
and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  decked  with  gold,  and  precious  stones,  and 
pearls ! 

For  in  one  hour  so  great  riches  is  come  to  naught  And  every  ship- 
master, and  all  the  company  in  ship,  and  sailors,  and  as  many  as  trade  by 
sea,  stood  afar  off, 

And  cried  when  they  saw  the  smoke  of  her  burning,  saying,  What  city 
is  like  unto  this  great  city! 

And  they  cast  dust  on  their  heads,  and  cried,  weeping  and  wailing,  say- 
ing, Alas,  alas,  that  great  city  wherein  were  made  rich  all  that  had  ships 
in  the  sea  by  reason  of  her  costliness !  for  in  one  hour  is  she  made  deso- 
late. 

• 

It  may  be  added,  as  another  incident  for  the  curious,  that 
while  the  great  disaster  increased  greatly  the  number  of  births 
and  deaths,  it  seriously  diminished  the  number  of  marriages 
during  the  week.  Indeed,  it  might  be  supposed  that  at  such  a 


360  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

time  of  general  distress,  there  would  be  neither  marrying  nor 
giving  in  marriage ;  yet  such  was  not  entirely  the  case.  The 
books  of  the  County  Clerk  show  that  twenty  licenses  were 
issued  during  the  week  commencing  with  the  8th — the  usual 
number  per  week  being  between  ninety  and  a  hundred.  The 
reader  can  readily  see  that  one  effect  of  a  common  misfortune 
would  be  to  bring  all  its  victims  closer  together  in  feeling,  as 
well  as  in  fact;  and  that  the  natural  tendency  among  betrothed 
pairs  would  be  to  become  united  at  once.  It  seems  that  this 
tendency  prevailed  over  the  drawback  of  reduced  means  in  the 
proportion  of  cases  named.  Among  the  twenty  grooms  was  the 
son  of  Chicago's  most  widely-known  divine;  and  it  is  no  dis- 
paragement of  the  bride  to  record  that,  her  bridal  trousseau 
having  been  seized  by  the  flames,  along  with  other  more  valua- 
ble, but  perhaps  not  more  valued  possessions,  she  "stood  up"  in 
a  calico  frock,  and  depended  upon  friends  who  were  not  among 
the  "  burnt  out "  for  other  articles  of  feminine  wear  essential  to 
the  nuptial  occasion. 

There  were  great  quantities  of  movables  lost  during  the 
flight  of  the  people  from  the  pursuing  element,  which  were  not 
ultimately  consumed.  Some  of  this  property  was  carried  off 
by  thieves  or  by  treacherous  carters,  with  intent  to  appropriate 
it  to  their  own  uses;  some  of  it  left — somewhere,  the  flustered 
and  flurried  owners  knew  not  where;  some  of  it  was  taken 
care  of  by  kindly-disposed  persons,  who  saved  the  property, 
but  lost  all  trace  of  its  owner.  Of  all  such  property  there  was 
a  depot  soon  established  at  the  Central  Police  Station,  where 
were  collected  a  great  store  of  goods  wanting  owners;  some  of 
them  brought  in  voluntarily,  and  others  (and  much  the  greater 
part)  ferreted  out  by  the  police.  Within  three  weeks  nearly  a 
million  dollars'  worth  of  movable  property  was  thus  accumu- 


INCIDENTS  AND  CURIOSITIES.  361 

lated  and  ultimately  restored  to  its  owners.  Of  course  this  Bu- 
reau of  Missing  Property  was  diligently  visited  by  all  who  had 
reason  to  hope  for  any  good  out  of  it ;  and  some  of  the  scenes, 
as  the  seekers  for  that  which  was  lost  came  upojj  the  object  of 
their  search,  were  very  interesting.  Every  article  had  become 
trebly  valuable  now;  for,  in  the  first  place,  hard  times  had  come 
on,  and  possessions  of  any  sort  were  none  too  plenty;  and,  in 
the  next  place,  each  article  recovered  was  a  tie  which  bound  its 
owner  to  the  dear  old  home,  the  dear  old  times,  and  the  dear 
old  Chicago. 

A  single  incident  will  illustrate  this.  Two  ladies  enter  the 
rooms,  one  of  them  being  in  quest  of  certain  lost  trunks  of 
wearing  apparel,  etc.  They  pass  through  the  several  rooms  in 
a  tedious  quest,  relieved  only  by  feminine  satisfaction  in  inspect- 
ing other  people's  property.  Of  this  there  was  an  endless  va- 
riety. There  were  oil  paintings,  trunks,  bedsteads,  bureaus,  car- 
pets, gamblers'  tools,  chairs,  sewing-machines,  clocks,  clothing, 
silverware,  boots  and  shoes,  books,  sofas,  etageres,  billiard-balls, 
guns,  and  almost  every  thing  conceivable.  The  place  resem- 
bled a  magnified  pawn-shop,  or  a  demoralized  bazaar.  At  length 
the  lady  finds  that  for  which  she  was  searching,  and  goes  to  the 
office  to  sign  the  necessary  papers  and  receive  her  certificate. 
Meanwhile  the  other  lady  continues  her  stroll  through  the 
building.  Suddenly  a  glad  cry  sounds  in  the  furniture-room, 
"Great  heavens!  that's  grandma's  rocking-chair!"  is  heard 
from  the  lady,  and  in  the  next  instant  she  had  picked  up  the 
chair  and  hugged  it  in  her  arms.  It  was  an  ordinary-looking 
chair,  with  rockers,  the  paint  worn  off  in  many  places,  with 
here  and  there  a  bit  of  iron  to  brace  the  joints  together;  but 
it  had  been  in  the  family  over  seventy  years. 

"  Streaks  of  good  luck "  seemed  to  be  rare  on  this  bitter  oc- 
31 


362  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

casion  when  all  fell  together;  yet  they  were  not  altogether  want- 
ing, as  for  instance:  A  few  weeks  before  the  Great  Conflagration, 
there  appeared  in  the  morning  papers  the  report  of  an  incipient 
fire  in  Mr.  Holbrook's  coal-yard.  The  loss  was  but  nominal, 
but  the  mere  fact  of  a  fire  in  a  coal-yard  led  to  an  investiga- 
tion, and  the  result  was  that  Mr.  Holbrook  and  several  other 
dealers  were  satisfied  the  fire  was  the  result  of  spontaneous 
combustion.  One  of  the  dealers  present,  a  Mr.  Pratt,  having 
thought  the  matter  over,  determined,  after  consultation,  to  take 
out  policies  for  insurance  in  the  sum  of  $45,000.  Coal- dealers 
very  seldom  insure  their  stock;  but  Mr.  Pratt  argued  that  if 
Holbrook's  yard  caught  fire  from  spontaneous  combustion, 
Pratt's  yard  was  liable  to  the  same  calamity;  hence  the  insur- 
ance. Then  came  the  great  fire,  and  Mr.  Pratt's  was  one  of  the 
first  coal-yards  consumed.  He  now  finds  himself  the  holder  of 
policies  in  Eastern  and  foreign  companies,  and  will  undoubtedly 
receive  fully  $30,000  in  payment  of  his  losses.  Very  singu- 
larly, he  was  the  only  dealer  in  the  city  who  was  insured. 

Per  contra,  there  were  numerous  narrow  escapes  from  good 
luck,  if  the  expression  be  allowable.  There  was,  for  instance, 
the  heaviest  firm  in  the  diamond  and  jewelry  line.  They  had 
always  insured  in  Eastern  companies,  especially  the  ./Etna,  to 
the  exclusion  of  Western.  Quite  lately,  however,  the  head  of 
the  firm  had  been  persuaded  to  relinquish  his  staunch  adherence 
to  Eastern  insurance,  and  patronize  home  institutions.  Then 
the  fire  came  on,  and  his  insurance  was  burned  up  with  his 
other  effects.  The  safes  in  which  the  silver  and  jewels  were 
placed,  proved  to  be  no  more  protection  than  as  if  they  nad  been 
pasteboard.  The  elaborately  carved  ornaments  of  gold  were 
reduced  to  poor  little  nuggets,  and  the  many  trays  full  of  costly 
diamonds  were  found  to  have  their  "  life  burnt  out  of  them," 


INCIDENTS  AND  CURIOSITIES.  363 

as  the  jewelers  say ;  that  is,  their  brilliancy  was  gone,  and  they 
were  as  worthless  as  glass.  The  diamond  is  pure  carbon,  and 
quite  susceptible  to  heat,  though  impervious  to  most  other 
destructive  influences. 

A  paragraph  was  given,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  to  the 
illustration  of  the  terrible  heat  which  prevailed  every-where 
within  the.  range  of  the  fire.  One  fact,  which  perhaps  shows 
more  forcibly  than  any  other  what  a  fiery  furnace  was  the  whole 
atmosphere,  is  this :  that  the  contents  of  some  safes  which  were 
taken  into  the  open  street  were  badly  singed.  It  is  also 
remarkable,  that  the  massive  stone  work  of  the  Lasalle  Street 
tunnel,  standing  in  the  middle  of  a  broad  street,  was  much 
chipped  and  charred  by  the  heat  clear  into  the  arched  passage; 
while  the  iron  railing  around  the  unenclosed  portion  of  that 
thoroughfare  was  so  twisted  and  torn  as  to  show  that  it  must 
have  been  at  a  white  heat  during  the  worst  of  the  tire.  All 
this  heat  must  have  been  derived  by  radiation  from  the  build- 
ings thirty  feet  away. 

Mr.  Fred.  Law  Olmsted,  a  well-known  architect  of  New 
York,  writing  on  this  subject,  remarks  :  "  Besides  the  extent 
of  the  ruins,  what  is  most  remarkable  is  the  completeness  with 
which  the  fire  did  its  work,  as  shown  by  the  prostration  of  the 
ruins  and  the  extraordinary  absence  of  smoke  stains,  brands, 
and  all  debris,  except  stone,  brick,  and  iron,  bleached  to  an 
ashy  pallor.  The  distinguishing  smell  of  the  ruins  is  that  of 
charred  earth.  In  not  more  than  a  dozen  cases  have  the  four 
walls  of  any  of  the  great  blocks,  or  of  any  buildings,  been  left 
standing  together.  It  is  the  exception  to  find  even  a  single 
corner  or  chimney  holding  together  to  a  height  of  more  than 
twenty  feet.  It  has  been  possible,  from  the  top  of  an  omnibus, 
to  see  men  standing  on  The  ground  three  miles  away,  acros* 


364  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

what  was  the  densest,  loftiest,  and  most  substantial  part  of  the 
city.  Generally,  the  walls  seem  to  have  crumbled  in  from  top 
to  bottom,  nothing  remaining  but  a  broad  low  heap  of  rubbish 
in  the  cellar — so  low  as  to  be  overlooked  from  the  pavement. 
Granite,  all  sandstones,  and  all  limestones,  whenever  fully 
exposed  to  the  south-west,  are  generally  flaked  and  scaled,  and 
blocks,  sometimes  two  and  three  feet  thick,  are  cracked  through 
and  through." 

The  fatal  effects  of  the  conflagration  on  human  life,  and  its 
influence  in  inducing  disease,  have  already  been  referred  to. 
It  is  also  noticeable  that  many  permanent  cures  were  effected 
by  the  excitement  attendant  upon  the  fire — aided  perhaps,  in 
some  cases,  by  the  greater  necessity  for  work  after  the  fire.  A 
friend  of  the  writer  of  this  chapter  bears  personal  testimony  to 
this.  He  was  suffering  from  a  painful  local  inflammation,  which 
had  refused  for  several  weeks  to  yield  to  medical  treatment. 
The  fire  came  on,  and  the  disease  was  among  the  things  miss- 
ing when  the  debris  was  cleared  away.  Having  seen  similar 
instances  in  the  army,  when  even  such  diseases  as  incipient 
fever  have  been  cured  by  a  battle,  we  were  not  surprised  at 
this.  The  physicians  report  numerous  cases  of  chronic  debility, 
whether  local  or  general,  cured  by  the  extraordinary  stimulus 
of  the  occasion.  As  a  bad  effect  of  the  same  stimulus,  many 
went  crazy  over  the  event.  Of  this,  two  notable  instances  are 
those  of  an  architect  and  engineer,  and  of  a  safe-dealer,  named 
Harris.  The  latter  rushed  to  the  telegraph  office,  ordered  an 
appalling  number  of  safes  from  the  manufactory,  and  hired  the 
ruins  of  an  immense  church  to  exhibit  them  in,  before  his 
lunacy  was  discovered. 

The  divorce  business,  for  which  Chicago  has  become  some- 
what famed,  was  revived  the  moment  the  Equity  Courts  re- 


INCIDENTS   AND   CURIOSITIES.  365 

sumcd  their  sessions ;  but  the  credit  for  this  promptitude  is  due 
rather  to  the  enterprise  of  the  divorce  shysters  than  to  the 
activity  of  married  pairs  in  promoting  this  branch  of  industry, 
for,  although  the  lawyers  were  promptly  out  with  their  adver- 
tisements, announcing  "divorces  legally  obtained  without  pub- 
licity," and  "no  fee  unless  decree  is  obtained,"  the  people  did 
not  seem  to  respond  with  any  enthusiasm,  and  it  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that  even  after  five  or  six  weeks  had  elapsed,  the 
applications  for  divorces  did  not  reach  more  than  one-fifth  the 
number  before  the  fire.  Perhaps  this  paragraph  properly  be- 
longs in  the  chapter  of  benefits  derived  from  the  disaster. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

WHY   SHE   WAS   DESTROYED. 

Origin  of  the  fire — Why  it  spread  so  fast  and  far — Was  there  incendia- 
rism?— The  Communist  story — Chicago  architecture — Chicago  admin- 
istration— Operations  of  the  Fire  Department. 

"TN  the  first  chapter  of  this  history  of  the  Conflagration,  we 
•*-  attributed  the  origin  of  the  fire  to  the  upsetting  of  a  lamp 
in  a  cow-barn.  No  investigation  made  since  that  chapter  was 
written  has  disproved  the  theory  therein  set  forth ;  nor  has  any 
revelation  of  any  achievements  or  exploits  of  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment on  the  night  of  the  great  fire  demonstrated  the  propriety 
of  altering  any  thing  which  we  have  written  or  implied  con- 
cerning that  force.  On  the  contrary,  a  statement  of  the  Marshal 
of  the  Fire  Department,  taken  with  a  view  to  setting  him  and 
his  aids  right  in  this  history,  has  but  confirmed  the  opinion  that 
the  efforts  of  the  department  on  the  night  in  question  were  tardy 
in  being  got  on  foot,  and  of  the  most  weak  and  desultory  char- 
acter thereafter. 

It  is  a  sufficient  commentary  upon  the  energy  and  force  of  the 
Police  and  Fire  Commission  of  Chicago  to  mention  that  at  the 
date  of  furnishing  this  chapter  to  the  press — some  five  weeks 
after  the  Conflagration — no  investigation  has  been  made,  or  or- 
dered, into  the  conduct  of  the  Fire  and  Police  Departments  on 

that  occasion;  no  recommendations  submitted;  nobody  removed 
(366) 


WHY   SHE   WAS   DESTROYED.  367 

for  cowardice  or  incompetency ;  nobody  promoted  for  bravery 
or  efficiency. 

The  causes  which  contributed  to  the  rapid  spread  and  fearful 
extent  of  the  Chicago  Conflagration  have  already  been  hinted 
at  in  various  places  in  this  volume.  They  may  be  summarized 
thus : 

1.  The  city  was  carelessly,  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  single 
square  mile,  very  badly  built. 

2.  The  weather  at  the  time  was  remarkably  dry. 

3.  The  wind  blew  a  steady  gale,  in  the  most  fatal  direction, 
during  the  whole  prevalence  of  the  fire. 

4.  The  Fire  Department,  though  well  equipped,  is  not  well 
officered. 

5.  The  Fire  Department  was  particularly  demoralized  on  the 
night  of  the  fire. 

These  are,  it  will  be  seen,  reasons  enough  to  insure  the  de- 
struction of  the  city ;  and  one  had  but  to  know  them,  and  to  sup- 
ply the  initiatory  outbreak  of  flame  in  the  De  Koven-street  quar- 
ter, to  predict  the  precise  programme  of  the  occasion.  There 
was  no  need  to  kindle  an  incendiary  fire,  for  scarcely  a  day 
elapsed  without,  at  the  least,  three  or  four  outbreaks,  and  some 
of  them  were  almost  certain  to  happen  in  the  fatal  spot.  The 
only  points  lacking  to  enable  one  to  predict  the  fire  beforehand 
as  well  as  we  have  all  been  doing  it  since,  were  those  hinging 
on  the  question,  how  great  a  degree  of  heat  could  be  produced 
by  so  many  burning  buildings,  with  such  a  monstrous  blow- 
pipe to  furnish  the  oxygen  and^such  a  mighty  bellows  to  waft 
the  brands  onward?  The  data  for  answering  these  questions 
had  never  been  furnished  by  any  previous  conflagration.  They 
will  be  lacking  no  longer. 

As  to  (1),  the  architecture  of  Chicago,  it  may  be  remarked, 


368  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

that  while  it  had  been  of  late  years  noted  for  its  aiiy  elegance 
and  its  appearance  of  massiveness,  it  had  been  open  to  serious 
objection,  which  the  city  press  had  not  neglected  to  make  pub- 
lic, on  account  of  the  profuse  use  of  flimsy  ornamentation  about 
the  cornices  and  windows,  and  the  inflammable  character  of 
much  of  the  roofing.  It  is  also  a  fact  that  many  of  the  most 
showy  and  massive-looking  front  walls  were  nothing  but  thin 
brick  ones,  veneered  with  the  Chicago  marble.  This  marble 
(a  limestone  which  barely  misses  being  marble)  is,  like  other 
limestones,  more  pervious  to  heat  than  brick,  sandstone,  or 
granite.  But  when  the  storm  of  fire  had  blown  over,  and  the 
completeness  of  the  ruin  was  ascertained,  even  including  all  the 
buildings  which  had  dispensed  with  show  for  the  sake  of 
strength  and  the  fire-proof  quality,  it  was  difficult  to  say  that 
any  kind  of  buildings  would  have  stayed  the  flames  after  they 
had  gained  such  terrible  impetus  in  traversing  the  mile  lying 
between  the  historical  cow-stable  and  the  well-built  portion  of 
the  city. 

At  all  events,  the  fault  which  tempted  Chicago's  fate,  lies 
more  with  the  Chicago  public  than  with  Chicago  architects. 
The  temptation  in  Chicago  to  build  of  lumber  was  very  great; 
and  such  was  the  hurry  of  every  body  to  get  under  cover  and 
.commence  producing  revenue;  and  such  the  desire  of  every 
citizen  to  see  the  city  grow,  and  productive  enterprise  to  build 
up,  that  these  tinder-boxes  were  allowed  to  be  placed  wherever 
it  happened — even  in  the  most  dangerous  places.  As  the 
writer  of  this  had  the  opportunity  of  saying  in  one  of  the  daily 
journals,  a  few  days  after  the  fire:  "We  have  been  too  good- 
natured  toward  those  who  have,  to  save  a  few  hundred  dollars 
of  their  expenses,  persistently  kept  in  jeopardy  the  safety  of  the 
whole  community,  by  maintaining  in  the  heart  of  the  city  great 


WHY  SHE  WAS  DESTROYED.  369 

numbers  of  the  most  inflammable  structures.  It  was  the  thou- 
sand or  so  of  dry  pine  shanties  and  rookeries  between  the  lake 
and  the  river,  and  south  of  Monroe  Street,  which  did  the  busi- 
ness for  Chicago  on  that  terrible  night.  With  these  huddled 
around  them,  and  emitting  vast  clouds  of  burning  brands,  which 
the  hurricane  forced  into  e^ery  cranny  and  through  every  win- 
dow, the  fine  stone  rows  of  the  avenues  and  of  the  principal 
streets  could  no  more  resist  the  raging  element  than  the  chaff 
can  resist  the  whirlwind.  There  may  have  been,  apd  doubtless 
were,  occasional  weaknesses  in  the  construction  of  the  later- 
built  stores  and  public  edifices — a  too  fragile  cornice,  or  win- 
dows too  much  exposed — but  the  fact  that  buildings  for  which 
every  thing  possible  to  architecture  had  been  done  to  make  them 
fire-proof  went  with  the  rest,  tells  plainly  that  the  only  fault 
— the  grand  fault  to  which  the  general  destructiveness  is  trace- 
able— was  in  allowing  the  fire  so  much  material  on  which  to 
feed  until  it  became  too  great  for  human  power  to  resist.  We 
had  spent  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  spasmodic 
efforts  to  exorcise  the  fire  fiend  from  our  limits,  and  yet  we 
were  all  the  while  furnishing  him  with  the  material  and  the 
space  with  which  to  organize  for  his  deadly  work.  We  had  been 
industriously  feeding  him  on  the  only  rations  whereon  he  could 
thrive."  So  far  as  the  question  of  building  is  concerned,  it 
may  be  added  that  the  fire  at  De  Koven  Street  needed  only  to 
have  been  .started  a  mile  further  to  the  south  and  west,  among 
the  rookeries  which  there  abound,  to  have  swept  away  nearly 
all  the  West  Division,  as  well  as  the  North  and  South. 

The  wind  and  the  drought  were  the  dispensations  of  Provi- 
dence, and  were  sent  in  accordance  with  the  All-wise  plan  and 
the  good  and  beneficent  laws  of  nature.  It  rested  with  the 


370  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

people  to  fortify  themselves  against  any  such  disastrous  conse- 
quences of  these  laws — not  as  defying  God,  but  as  using  dili- 
gently the  intelligence  which  He  has  given  them  to  protect 
themselves  against  such  disaster.  If  Chicago  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  an  earthquake  or  a  volcano,  or  any  other  convulsion 
of  the  elements  which  could  not  be  foreseen  or  provided  against, 
it  might  then  have  been  called  a  special  judgment  of  Heaven, 
whether  of  obvious  or  occult  purport;  but,  coming  as  it  did,  in 
a  way  which  made  the  only  wonder  why  it  had  not  come 
before,  it  can  not  be  construed  otherwise  than  as  a  timely 
reminder  of  the  power  of  God,  working  through  the  elements, 
and  as  a  hint  to  fear  Him,  love  our  fellow-men,  subdue  our 
pride,  and  make  our  walls  of  brick,  eschewing  wooden  roofs. 
A  fire-proof  building  is  perhaps  as  proper  a  monument  to  the 
superiority  of  the  Divine  power  as  any  we  can  raise. 

As  to  (4)  and  (5)  the  Fire  Department :  The  principal  offi- 
.cers  of  this  body  are  appointed  to  their  places  through  political 
influence,  which  is  perhaps  saying  enough  to  indicate  the 
degree  and  direction  of  their  talents.  They  are  the  creatures 
of  one  of  those  independent  boards  for  which  Chicago  is  dis- 
tinguished, and  it  would  not  be  practicable  for  any  Mayor  or 
Council,  however  faithful,  to  ferret  out  and  dismiss  from  the 
roster  any  officer  not  actually  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor.  It 
was  said,  after  the  fire,  that  the  Chief  Marshal  of  the  depart- 
ment was  under  the  influence  of  liquor  on  the  night  of  the  fire; 
but  careful  inquiry  has  convinced  us  that  this  charge  is  untrue. 
It  is  a  fact  that  many  were  the  worse  for  their  potations  at  the 
time  the  alarm  sounded ;  it  being  the  habit  with  many  to  cele- 
brate all  great  fires,  like  that  of  the  previous  evening,  by  a 
good  thorough  drunk.  As  a  consequence  of  this  and  the 
fatigue  from  the  night's  work  (which  should  have  been  slept 


WHY   SHE   WAS   DESTROYED.  371 

off  during  Sunday),  the  men  were  not  in  condition  to  do  good 
service  on  Sunday  night — brave  and  willing  though  they  were 
on  most  occasions. 

After  the  steamers  arrived  on  the  ground  and  got,  at  length, 
a  stream  or  two  on  the  fire,  there  was  nothing  done  but  to  "  fire 
and  fall  back"  as  the  flames  advanced.  The  Marshal,  Wil- 
liams, was  in  front  of  the  enemy  with  a  part  of  his  force,  while 
his  first  assistant,  Shanks,  was  in  the  rear.  The  latter  was,  of 
course,  powerless  to  do  any  good  in  that  position.  Neither  of 
these  men  saw  or  communicated  with  the  other  during  the 
whole  progress  of  the  fire.  The  Marshal  and  his  force  kept 
falling  back,  losing  a  section  of  hose  here  and  an  engine  there. 
It  was  a  running  fight,  like  the  retreat  of  Pope  from  the  Rap- 
pahannock.  Nothing  was  done  toward  heading  off  a  conflagra- 
tion on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  until  the  buildings  near  the 
Armory  (Adams  Street)  were  actually  seen  to  be  in  flames. 
Then  the  Marshal  pulled  up  and  hastened,  by  a  roundabout 
route,  across  the  river,  where  the  same  story  was  repeated,  viz : 
Lead  on  a  stream  here,  to  be  driven  out  presently  by  the  heat, 
then  try  it  yonder  for  a  few  minutes,  give  it  up,  then  dash  off 
and  play  away,  as  if  at  random,  upon  some  building  further  on. 
It  was  somewhere  near  the  Sherman  House  that  the  contest 
was  given  up,  except  that  efforts  were  made,  during  the  day,  to 
check  the  flames  as  they  ate  their  way  back  toward  the  wind, 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  broad  avenues.  At  Congress  Street,  a 
few  houses  were  blown  up,  but  no  one  will  say,  from  looking 
at  the  situation,  the  place,  and  the  time,  that  much  was  gained 
by  the  operation. 

The  Water-works  went  before  four  in  the  morning  of  Mon- 
day. It  was  a  sin  of  some  one's  that  a  wooden  roof  covered 
that  precious  ark  of  the  city's  safety ;  yet  it  is  doubtful  whether, 


372  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

at  or  after  the  hour  named,  much  could  have  been  done  toward 
checking  the  progress  of  the  flames,  or  preserving  any  particular 
buildings,  which  was  omitted  by  reason  of  a  lack  of  water  at 
the  hydrants.  The  district  burned  subsequent  to  that  hour 
was  near  enough  to  the  river  or  to  the  lake  to  have  been  saved 
by  water  from  these  sources,  if  engines  could  have  been 
brought  to  bear,  or  if  any  thing  could  have  saved  what  lay  in 
the  track  of  the  then  irresistible,  insatiate  flames.  But,  at 
least,  the  panic  and  privation  which  ensued  among  the  people 
of  the  city  would  have  been  spared,  but  for  the  loss  of  the 
Water-works. 

Various  theories  were  set  up,  chiefly  by  persons  anxious  to 
produce  a  sensation  or  to  fill  up  a  column,  concerning  the 
reason  for  the  unprecedentedly  wide  spread  of  the  devastation. 
One  of  these  was  invented  by  a  morning  paper  in  Chicago, 
which  purported  to  be  the  confession  of  a  member  of  the  Inter- 
national Society — a  Communist  of  Paris,  and  one  of  a  gang 
deputed  to  burn  Chicago.  The  motive  for  such  a  deed  did  not 
appear  to  be  sufficient,  nor  was  the  story  free  from  marks 
which  betrayed  its  origin  in  the  brain  of  a  professional  newspa- 
per writer.  Another  theory,  equally  ridiculous,  was  that  the 
stone  used  in  Chicago  buildings  was  impregnated  with  petro- 
leum. This  theory  was  founded  upon  certain  Munchausenish 
stories  of  New  York  reporters,  and  upon  a  statement  by  Prof. 
Silliman,  that  a  certain  stone  near  Chicago,  used  to  some  extent 
in  building,  contains  large  quantities  of  petroleum.  But  it  so 
happens  that  the  only  edifice  built  of  the  "oil-bearing"  stone 
(the  Second  Presbyterian  Church)  is  the  best  preserved  ruin 
anywhere  in  the  vicinity,  while  Potter  Palmer's  immense  store, 
of  Vermont  marble  and  iron,  which  stood  near  by,  had  scarcely 
one  stone  upon  another  on  the  second  day  after  the  fire. 


WHY   SHE   WAS   DESTROYED.  373 

That  there  may  have  been  cases  of  incendiarism  which  helped 
on  the  conflagration  is  not  improbable.  If  so,  they  were  the 
result  of  the  excitement  and  demoralization  produced  by  the 
terrible  event,  rather  than  of  any  preconcerted  plan.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  the  building  near  the  Water- works,  from  which 
the  roof  of  the  engine-house  caught,  was  set  on  fire  by  an 
incendiary,  or  by  accident,  independent  of  the  general  confla- 
gration. Some  circumstances  would  seem  to  indicate  this;  yet 
the  people  who  went  through  the  fire  and  witnessed  its  awful 
phenomena  believe,  almost  without  exception,  that  this  fire  also 
was  set  by  a  brand  from  the  main  conflagration. 

Some  of  the  grounds  for  anticipating  disastrous  conflagra- 
tions, and  for  providing  against  them  by  all  available  means, 
may  be  found  from  the  following  table  of  fires  occurring  in 
Chicago  during  the  eight  years  preceding  1871 : 

Tear.  Fires.  Losses.  Insurance. 


1863, 

186 

$355,660 

$272  500 

1864, 
1865, 

193 
....    243 

651,798 
1  216  466 

485,300 
941  692 

1866, 

.   .   .    315 

2  487  973 

1  646  445 

1867, 

515 

4,215  332 

3  427  288 

1868, 

468 

3  138617 

1  956  851 

1869, 

490 

1,241,151 

841  392 

'870, 

700 

2  305  595 

2  052  971 

Total, 

3,110 

$15,612,592 

$11,624,439 

This  enormous  total  of  losses  includes  only  those,  sustained 
by  the  insurance  companies  of  New  York  and  Hartford,  leav- 
ing out  of  the  reckoning  the  home  companies,  the  Cincinnati, 
Cleveland,  Buifalo,  Albany,  and  Boston  concerns,  and  the  few 
foreign  companies  which  have  consented  to  take  risks  in  Chi- 
cago. The  city  has  the  worst  fire  record  of  any  large  city  iu 
America. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   NEWSPAPERS   AND   THE   FIRE. 

What  they  said  on  Sunday  morning,  October  8 — Prophecies  suddenly  ful- 
filled— "Old  and  tried"  insurance  companies  tried  too  much — The 
episode  in  the  Tribune  office — A  "red  hot"  newspaper — Cheery 
counsel  in  trouble — How  the  journals  rose  from  their  ashes — Curiosi- 
ties of  advertising". 

FT  is  not  amiss  to  devote  a  chapter  to  the  record  of  the  news- 
-*-  papers  of  Chicago,  in  connection  with  the  Great  Confla- 
gration. They  are  such  powerful,  and  altogether  noteworthy 
establishments,  and  represent  so  truly  the  ambition,  the  energy, 
and  the  progressiveness  for  which  the  people  of  Chicago  are 
distinguished,  that  they  bear  to  the  aggregate  of  the  city's  con- 
stituencies at  least  the  proportions  which  a  chapter  of  this  book 
bears  to  the  whole.  Nowhere  in  the  world  does  the  growing 
power  of  the  newspaper  press,  and  the  growing  disposition  to 
use  that  power  independently  for  good  ends,  find  better  illustra- 
tion than  in  Chicago;  and  when  the  fire  came  and  tried  the 
stuff  of  which  all  of  us  were  made,  the  newspapers  went  through 
the  crucible  with  the  rest ;  and  not  only  did  they  prove  pure 
metal,  but  they  evinced  the  qualities  of  the  true  philosopher's 
stone,  transmuting  into  gold  that  which  seemed  to  be  but  ashes; 
or  what  is  more  to  the  point,  they  acted  like  quicksilver  in  re- 
solving out  from  the  dross  with  which  it  had  become  iucrusted, 
the  pure  gold  of  many  a  faltering  citizen's  heart. 
(374) 


THE  NEWSPAPERS  AND   THE   FIRE.  375 

On  the  morning  of  the  eighth  of  October — the  day  of  Chicago's 
doom — the  Tribune  (by  common  consent  the  acknowledged  chief 
of  these  valiant  journals)  contained  (and  this  illustrates  its 
enterprise)  three  columns — equivalent  to  eighteen  pages  of  this 
book — of  description  of  a  fire  which  had  broken  out  after  mid- 
night on  the  night  of  the  seventh.  It  contained  also  over  one 
thousand  advertisements,  all  devoted  to  Chicago  business,  or 
the  "Wants"  of  Chicago  people.  It  contained  sixty  long 
columns  of  matter  in  all — equal  to  four  hundred  pages  of  this 
book,  or  nearly  two  complete  numbers  of  any  of  our  first-class 
monthly  magazines.  Its  real-estate  article,  on  that  morning, 
commenced  with  this  epitome  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
Chicago : 

"  There  has  scarcely  been  a  time  for  ten  years  past  when  there 
seemed  to  be  so  many  schemes  of  one  kind  or  another  on  foot, 
and  which,  if  carried  out,  will  affect  the  value  of  real  estate  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  city  and  its  suburbs.  To  use  the  expres- 
sion of  one  who  has  been  warily  watching  the  growth  of  the 
various  projects  for  new  railroads  and  new  suburban  quarters, 
for  both  residences  and  manufactories — 'Every  body  seems  to 
be  swelled  up  with  big  schemes.' " 

Further  on  we  read  : 

"  The  new  manufacturing  enterprises,  of  which  not  less  than 
six  or  seven  will  have  been  started  within  the  next  nine  months, 
thus  furnishing  employment  for  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two 
thousand  more  mechanics  than  are  at  work  here  now ;  these, 
together  with  the  new  railroad  projects,  and  the  rapid  increase 
of  population  and  business  from  other  causes,  have  stimulated 
the  speculative  feeling  until  it  has  even  infected  some  of  the 
coolest  and  most  conservative  people  who  have  always  held  aloof 
from  speculation.  It  is  in  this  that  lies  the  only  danger  of  the 


376  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

present  situation,  and  it  would  be  well  to  remember  that  when 
prospects  look  the  most  flattering,  is  the  very  time  when  it  is 
necessary  to  exercise  the  greatest  caution." 

This  was  not  prophetic,  though  it  almost  seems  so  now;  it 
was  merely  the  good  advice  which  had  been  doled  out  in  moder- 
ate doses  to  the  fortune-chasing  Chicagoans,  at  intervals  for 
years,  and  in  spite  of  which  they  had  gone  on  and  made  fortunes. 
But  this  good  advice  vindicated  itself  at  last. 

In  the  same  day's  issue  of  the  Times  the  real-estate  arti- 
cle commenced  thus : 

"  There  never  was  a  time  when  there  was  more  going  on  in 
Chicago  in  the  way  of  construction  than  now.  New  buildings 
are  looming  up  in  every  direction  above  the  surrounding 
structures,  while  probably  not  a  day  passes  without  the  con- 
struction of  new  buildings,  even  though  the  season  is  so  far 
advanced.  The  city's  growth  this  year  has  been  unparalleled." 

The  Tribune,  in  the  article  referred  to,  went  on  to  describe 
the  routes  by  which  three  of  the  five  great  new  lines  of  rail- 
road contemplating  an  entrance  into  the  city  were  going  to 
effect  that  entrance.  Thus  the  newspapers  of  October  8th,  the 
last  day  of  the  old  Chicago,  placed  on  record  the  fact  that  the 
people  of  the  city  were  never  so  active,  never  so  prosperous, 
never  so  ambitious,  never  so  sanguine  of  the  future  as  on  the 
morning  of  that  fatal  day.  These  cheering  announcements  read 
now  like  a  mockery  of  the  cruel  fate  that  followed  so  close  upon 
their  heels.  Not  so  the  hint  thrown  out  in  this  paragraph  from 
the  introduction  to  the  account  of  the  Saturday  night  fire  : 

"  For  days  past,  alarm  has  followed  alarm,  but  the  compara- 
tively trifling  losses  have  familiarized  us  to  the  pealing  of  the 
Court-house  bell,  and  we  had  forgotten  that  the  absence  of  rain 
for  three  weeks  had  left  every  thing  in  so  dry  and  inflammable 


THE   NEWSPAPERS  AND   THE   FIRE.  377 

a  condition  that  a  spark  might  start  afire  which  would  sweep  from 
end  to  end  of  the  city"  Within  twenty-four  hours  that 
prophecy  was  verified ;  the  fire  was  kindled,  and  the  conflagra- 
tion did  "  sweep  from  end  to  end  of  the  city."  But  it  would 
seem  as  if  corporations  had  not  the  gift  of  prophecy,  for  we 
find  in  the  same  issue  of  the  Tribune  a  paragraph  headed  "  The 
Great  Fire,"  and  remarking  with  regard  to  that  fire  and  the 
Mutual  Security  Insurance  Company,  that  "  the  agents  will  be 
ready  to  commence  the  work  of  adjusting  early  on  Monday 
morning,"  that  "  happily  for  the  stockholders  of  this  sterling 
old  company,  their  ample  surplus  far  exceeds  the  loss,  and 
leaves  their  handsome  capital  unimpaired,"  and  that  "  the  re- 
sult is  a  lesson  to  property-owners  to  insure  in  none  but  old 
and  tried  companies."  This  "  old  and  tried  company  "  which 
had  been  so  brave  through  the  "  Great  Fire,"  and  which  had 
dispatched  an  agent  post  haste,  after  midnight,  to  insert  a 
flaming  advertisement  and  an  editorial  puff  in  the  morning 
papers,  could  not  find  assets  enough,  twenty-four  hours  after- 
ward, to  pay  five  cents  on  each  dollar  of  its  losses. 

The  journals  of  that  morning  announced  for  the  week  and 
for  the  winter  an  unprecedentedly  rich  season  of  stage  amuse- 
ments— opera,  with  the  world's  best  prima  donnas  and  the  finest 
accessories  ever  known  in  America,  the  opening  on  the  morrow 
of  the  finest  temple  of  music  and  the  drama  to  be  found  on  this 
continent,  and  all  manner  of  feasts  for  the  senses  of  the  luxu- 
rious and  the  taste  of  the  refined.  Chicago  had  become  almost 
another  Pompeii  in  luxury,  if  not  in  licentiousness ;  she  has 
become  almost  another  Pompeii  in  the  suddenness  of  her  fate ! 

The  storm  struck ;  the  offices  of  the  journals  referred  to  were 
busy  hives  on  that  awful  night.  Nothing  like  it  had  ever  been 

known  in  the  city.    The  city  editor  and  his  reporters  rose  to 
32 


378  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

the  emergency.  Supernumerary  reporters  were  called  in  and 
given  their  orders  in  quick,  nervous  tones.  They  sped  away 
and  reaped  a  harvest  of  horrors  much  more  quickly  than  they 
could  bind  them  for  the  garnering  of  the  editor.  That  garner- 
ing never  happened  at  the  office  of  the  Times,  for  the  force  was 
driven  away  by  the  flames  before  work  upon  the  grand  report 
had  commenced.  At  the  Tribune  it  was  otherwise.  That  papei 
rejoiced  in  a  building  which  was  "absolutely  fire-proof,"  and 
Medill,  the  city  editor,  was  determined  to  have  a  seven-column 
description  of  the  gn.nd  fire  in  the  morning,  whether  there  wa? 
any  town  left  to  read  it  or  not.  So  he  mapped  out  his  magnum 
opus  of  the  year.  One  after  another  the  reporters  came  in,  with- 
out the  usual  jocularity,  took  their  places  in  the  "  local "  room, 
in  the  top  story  of  the  Tribune  Building,  and  commenced  desper- 
ately at  their  task.  One  or  two  were  set  to  watch,  from  the 
roof,  the  progress  of  the  devastation.  Others  were  writing  out 
what  they  had  already  seen.  Johnny  English,  the  regular 
night  reporter,  whose  chief  glory  was  in  a  fire  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude, came  in  declaring  that  he  had  matter  enough  to  keep 
him  writing  for  a  week.  To  work  they  all  went  and  resolutely 
wrestled  with  their  task — a  greater  one  than  mortal  will  ever  yet 
achieve — adequately  to  describe  the  sublime  event.  Walls  were 
toppling  around  them,  flames  mounting  above  them,  the  ground 
shaking  like  an  earthquake  beneath  them,  the  red  foe  glaring 
in  at  the  windows  and  crackling,  hissing,  and  roaring  in  their 
ears,  but  still  they  wrote  on.  The  buildings  at  the  north,  across 
the  street,  were  all  mown  down  like  grass — and  still  they  wrote 
on.  The  "  fire-proof"  post-office  went — and  still  they  wrote  on. 
The  Reynolds  Block ;  opposite,  was  invested  by  the  flames,  the 
large  plate-glass  panes  of  the  Tribune  windows  began  to  snap 
under  the  intense  heat — and  still  they  wrote  on.  The  limit 


X 

THE   NEWSPAPERS   AND   THE   FIRE.  379 

was  reached  at  last — of  time,  not  of  matter — and  the  brave 
compositors  had  placed  the  record  in  type  by  the  light  of  the 
incandescent  atmosphere;  for  the  gas  jets  had  already  ceased  to 
flow.  In  that  lurid  light,  and  in  the  two-fold  heat  of  the  fire 
without  the  building,  and  the  fire  within  their  own  breasts, 
these  artisans  completed  their  work — emptied  their  last  "take," 
and  consigned  the  "turtles"  to  the  pressmen  far  below.  These 
fellows  alone  proved  unequal  to  the  emergency;  and  pleading  a 
lack  of  water  for  steam  to  run  their  engines  (which  may  have 
been  true),  they  fled,  leaving  the  forms  upon  the  huge  press, 
and  the  candles,  suddenly  obtained,  glimmering  uselessly  about 
the  tables. 

Others  had  been  busy  attempting  to  save  the  files  of  the 
paper — a  very  valuable  series,  embracing  some  forty  volumes ; 
but  they  were  obliged  to  drop  these  on  the  way  out  and  run 
for  their  lives.  The  building  did  not  succumb  until  nearly  ten 
o'clock,  after  every  thing  in  the  vicinity  had  gone  down  before 
the  united  force  of  the  fire  and  the  tornado.  It  was  a  remarka- 
bly strong  building,  its  walls  .being  of  brick  and  marble,  and 
at  least  two  feet  thick.  Its  ceilings  were  of  corrugated  iron, 
arched,  between  heavy  wrought  iron  "  I "  beams.  These  were 
imbedded  in  cement,  over  which  laid  the  floors  of  ash  and  wal- 
nut. All  partition  walls  were  of  brick,  and  all  staircases  of 
stone  or  iron,  those  leading  to  the  second  floor  having  been  laid 
up  from  the  ground,  in  the  solidest  manner,  before  ever  the 
walls  rose.  But  every  Achilles  has  his  vulnerable  heel,  and 
the  Tribune  Building  proved  weak  in  two  places — at  least  not 
strong  enough  to  keep  out  the  waves  of  the  lake  of  fire  which 
had  surged  around  it  for  seven  hours.  The  basement  caught 
first,  from  under  the  sidewalk;  then  the  falling  of  McVicker's 
Theater  let  in  the  flames  through  a  window  on  an  alley,  whose 


380  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

iron  shutters  the  men  had  been  unable  to  close:  Then  the  fine 
stronghold  in  which  not  only  its  proprietors  but  all  the  people 
had  proudly  confided,  fell,  and  they  said  "there's  no  u;-e  hop- 
ing any  longer.  Every  thing  must  go." 

This  was  a  little  after  ten  o'clock,  on  Monday  morning.  At 
three  o'clock,  when  the  business  part  of  the  town  was  all  gone, 
and  every  Chicago  newspaper  with  it,  and  fifteen  thousand 
buildings  were  burning  simultaneously  throughout  eight  wards 
of  the  city,  and  the  terror-stricken  population  were  all  shrink- 
ing along  the  margin  of  the  lake  or  the  suburban  prairies,  the 
Evening  Journal,  true  to  the  spirit  of  Chicago  journalism,  came 
out  with  a  small  extra,  containing  a  clear  and  comprehensive 
account  of  the  conflagration.  Some  printers  of  the  Evening 
Post  establishment  rallied  at  a  small  job  printing  shop,  on  the 
west  side  of  the  river,  and  got  out  a  Post  for  the  emergency. 
The  Tribune  Building  had  not  ceased  to  blaze,  or  rather  to 
melt,  for  there  was  not  much  about  it  to  make  a  blaze  of,  before 
Joseph  Medill,  one  of  its  chief  stockholders  (since  elected 
mayor  of  the  city),  had  sought  out  a  job-office  on  Canal  Street 
— a  locality  where  nobody  had  dreamed  there  was  any  thing 
of  the  sort — and  bought  it  out,  type,  presses,  and  lease  of 
three  spacious  floors;  so  that  on  the  morrow  the  force  of  the 
Tribune  was  at  work  producing  a  broadside  sheet  for  Wednes- 
day morning.  That  issue  sounded  out  like  a  tocsin  which 
called  every  man  in  Chicago  to  his  duty.  It  gave  a  twelve 
column  account  of  the  great  calamity.  It  was  headed  "  Chicago 
destroyed;"  but  this  was  merely  a  rhetorical  flourish  of  the 
younger  Medill,  for  the  editorial  columns  abounded  in  ringing, 
cheering  utterances.  We  can  not  forbear  quoting  the  principal 
of  these : 


THE  NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  FIRE.  381 

"CHEER  UP." 

"  In  the  midst  of  a  calamity  without  parallel  in  the  world's 
history,  looking  upon  the  ashes  of  thirty  years'  accumulations, 
the  people  of  this  once  beautiful  city  have  resolved  that  CHI- 
CAGO SHALL  RISE  AGAIN! 

"  With  woe  on  every  hand,  with  death  in  many  strange  places, 
with  two  or  three  hundred  millions  of  our  hard-earned  property 
swept  away  in  a  few  hours,  the  hearts  of  our  men  and  women 
are  still  brave,  and  they  look  into  the  future  with  undaunted 
hearts.  As  there  has  never  been  such  a  calamity,  so  has  there 
never  been  such  cheerful  fortitude  in  the  face  of  desolation 
and  ruin. 

"Thanks  to  the  blessed  charity  of  the  good  people  of  the 
United  States,  we  shall  not  suffer  from  hunger  or  nakedness  in 
this  trying  time.  Hundreds  of  train-loads  of  provisions  are 
coming  forward  to  us  with  all  speed  from  every  quarter,  from 
Maine  to  Omaha.  Some  have  already  arrived — more  will 
reach  us  before  tnese  words  are  printed.  Three-fourths  of  our 
inhabited  area  is  still  saved.  The  water  supply  will  be  speedily 
renewed.  Steam  fire  engines  from  a  dozen  neighboring  cities 
have  already  arrived,  and  more  are  on  their  way.  It  seems 
impossible  that  any  further  progress  should  be  made  by  the 
flames,  or  that  any  new  fire  should  break  out  that  would  not 
be  instantly  extinguished. 

"Already  contracts  have  been  made  for  rebuilding  some 
of  the  burned  blocks,  and  the  clearing  away  of  the  debris 
will  commence  to-day,  if  the  heat  is  so  far  subdued  that  the 
charred  material  can  be  handled.  Field,  Leiter  &  Co.  and 
John  V.  Farwell  &  Co.  will  recommence  business  to-day.  The 
money  and  securities  in  all  the  banks  are  safe.  The  railroads 
are  working  with  all  their  energies  to  bring  us  out  of  our  afflic- 


382  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

tion.  The  three  hundred  millions  of  capital  invested  in  these 
roads  is  bound  to  see  us  through.  They  have  been  built  with 
special  reference  to  a  great  commercial  mart  at  this  place, 
and  they  can  not  fail  to  sustain  us.  CHICAGO  MUST  RISE 

AGAIN. 

"  We  do  not  belittle  the  calamity  that  has  befallen  us.  The 
world  has  probably  never  seen  the  like  of  it — certainly  not 
since  Moscow  burned.  But  the  forces  of  nature,  no  less  than 
the  forces  of  reason  require  that  the  exchanges  of  a  great  region 
should  be  conducted  here.  Ten,  twenty  years  may  be  required 
to  reconstruct  our  fair  city,  but  the  capital  to  rebuild  it  fire- 
proof will  be  forthcoming.  The  losses  we  have  suffered  must 
be  borne;  but  the  place,  the  time,  and  the  men  are  here,  to 
commence  at  the  bottom  and  work  up  again ;  not  at  the  bottom 
neither,  for  we  have  credit  in  eveYy  land,  and  the  experience  of 
one  upbuilding  of  Chicago  to  help  us.  Let  us  all  cheer  up, 
save  what  is  yet  left,  and  we  shall  come  out  right.  The  Chris- 
tian world  is  coming  to  our  relief.  The  worH  is  already  over. 
In  a  few  days  more  all  the  dangers  will  be  past,  and  we  can 
resume  the  battle  of  life  with  Christian  faith  and  western  grit. 
Let  us  all  cheer  up !" 

This  bugle-call  had  an  electrical  effect  upon  the  spirits  of  the 
people.  Perhaps  it  only  echoed  the  sentiment  which  they  were 
already  uttering  to  each  other,  as  the  "soul  of  a  young  man 
speaks  to  another,"  in  Longfellow's  Psalm  of  Life;  and  the 
refrain  of  it  was  the  same  as  that  which  the  poet  has  made  a 
household  word : 

"  Let  us  then  be  up  and  doing, 
With  a  heart  for  any  fate; 
Still  achieving,  still  pursuing, 
Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait." 


THE   NEWSPAPERS  AND   THE   FIRE.  383 

But  Chicago  would  not  consent  to  wait  any  such  period  as 
their  Tribune  had  set  for  them;  and  to-day  one  can  hear  no 
longer  period  than  five  years  appointed  among  Chicagoans  for 
the  complete  rebuilding  of  their  city. 

The  Journal  and  Post,  at  the  same  time,  joined  in  the  strain 
with  manful  utterances.  The  latter  said,  on  Wednesday : 
"  There  is  now  only  one  way  to  look — ahead.  Chicago  has  a 
future  as  certainly  as  it  has  a  past.  Upon  all  the  blackened 
walls  and  tottering  towers,  upon  clinging  cornice  and  ruined 
pavement,  is  written  broadly  the  cheery  word  RESURGAM. 
There  is  manliness  enough  left  here  to  reconstruct  the  city  even 
in  this  terrible  calamity  and  this  deep  desolation.  There  is 
waste,  but  there  is  not  despair.  The  brave  hearts  of  our  citi- 
zens, even  more  than  the  sympathy  of  other  cities,  stands  to  us 
as  a  pledge  of  victory.  The  land  is  left,  the  grand  position  is 
left,  and  the  men  are  left  who  reared  the  recent  magnificent 
city  from  the  prairie  mud.  They  can  do  it  again,  and  they 
will  do  it  again.  The  consequences  of  the  most  disastrous  fire 
the  world  has  ever  suffered,  will  be  conquered  and  forgotten  by 
the  most  intrepid  spirit  of  determination  the  world  has  ever 
reared."  At  the  same  time  the  Post  had  coolness  enough  to 
interpose  a  timely  word  in  deprecation  of  panics,  and  warning 
against  acts  of  violence,  in  the  name  of  the  law,  such  as  were 
liable  to  result  from  the  excited ,  condition  of  the  public  mind 
at  that  time. 

There  were  but  three  or  four  presses  large  enough  to  print  a 
newspaper  of  respectable  size  in  the  city ;  and  these  were,  single 
cylinders,  and  not  in  first-rate  condition,  so  that  the  working 
of  the  editions  was  very  slow.  The  Tribune  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  two  eight-cylinder  Hoes,  either  working  10,000 
sheets  per  hour,  and  the  other  papers  had  had  a  four-cylinder 


381  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

each ;  so  that  but  a  small  portion,  even  of  the  city  editions  of 
either  newspaper  could  be  printed.  None  were  mailed,  or  even 
sent  to  city  subscribers  by  carriers,  for  several  days.  The  price 
of  a  newspaper  for  the  first  few  days  was  twenty-five  cents,  in- 
variably, except  the  Tribune,  which  on  the  first  day  sold  readily 
for  half  a  dollar,  and  even  a  dollar.  To  obtain  them  for  sale 
upon  the  street,  the  boys  (and  such  men  as  desired)  had  to 
"  fall  in,"  form  a  queue  and  wait,  perhaps  an  hour  or  two  for  a 
chance  to  buy.  The  price  at  the  counting-room  was  never 
raised  above  the  regular  five  cents,  nor  was  the  price  of  adver- 
tising raised.  Displayed  advertisements  were  refused  by  the 
Tribune,  as  more  was  received  than  could  have  been  printed  in 
the  paper,  leaving  out  all  other  matter.  There  was  never  such 
a  rush  of  advertising  in  Chicago  as  during  the  few  weeks  fol- 
lowing the  fire.  The  lists  of  missing  persons  were  advertised 
constantly  without  charge,  and  on  some  days  filled  two  columns 
of  space.  The  Republican  resumed  publication  on  the  12th, 
and  the  Evening  Mail  on  the  same  day.  The  German  papers 
were  slower ;  while  the  Times,  after  announcing  an  intention  to 
suspend  for  a  month  rather  than  issue  an  inferior  sheet,  resumed 
on  the  18th  in  good  style. 

On  the  15th,  the  Tribune  said  : 

"When,  on  last  Wednesday,  we  called  upon  the  people  of 
Chicago  to  cheer  up,  we  did  not  appreciate  or  estimate  the  force 
of  character  that  was  in  them.  Our  citizens  have  displayed  a 
noble  heroism,  worthy  of  the  abounding  charity  that  has  been 
showered  upon  them.  They  have  shown  capacity  to  help 
themselves,  and  that  alone  is  worth  every  thing  in  the  way  of 
re-establishing  their  credit  and  procuring  the  necessary  capital 
to  build  up  again.  Let  them  go  on  as  they  have  begun,  not 
calling  on  Congress  or  the  gods  for  donations,  or  stay  laws,  and 


THE   NEWSPAPERS   AND   THE    FIRE.  385 

they  will  come  out  of  the  fire  right  side  up,  and  presently  we 
shall  have  our  Chicago  again,  nobler  and  more  beautiful  than 
before.  .  .  .  With  tears  for  the  dead  and  dying,  with  sor- 
row and  tender  care  for  the  maimed  and  sick,  with  faith  in  God, 
and  stout  hearts  in  our  breasts,  we  now  begin  to  clear  away  the 
ruins." 

The  newspapers  were,  indeed,  during  the  terrible  week  fol- 
lowing the  conflagration,  among  the  most  necessary  articles, 
ranking  along  with  food,  water,  and  fire-engines.  Besides  fur- 
nishing the  facts  about  the  calamity  which  still  hung  like  a 
spent  thunder-cloud  in  the  horizon,  and  disproving  many  har- 
assing falsehoods  which  were  circulating  about,  and  which 
thronged  like  vermin  in  all  the  out-of-Chicago  papers,  they 
served  the  very  necessary  purpose  of  enabling  thousands  of  per- 
sons to  announce  their  whereabouts,  and  advertise  for  those  who 
were  missing;  also  for  announcing  the  new  location  of  men  of 
business — a  class  of  announcements  which  soon  became  veVy 
numerous.  The  Tribune  of  the  22d  of  October — the  thirteenth 
day  after  the  fire — contained  1536  advertisements,  chiefly  of 
business  and  professional  men  announcing  their  change  of  loca- 
tion. The  manner  of  this  announcement  was  as  cool  as  could 
be.  It  was  usually  to  the  effect  that  "Messrs.  A.  &  B.  have 
removed  their  store  to  No.  —  C.  Street."  No  reference  to  any 
fire  or  other  indication  that  the  removal  was  not  entirely  a  com- 
monplace affair. 

The  advertisements  of  those  days  will  be  found  valuable 
mementoes  of  the  time  whenever  in  future  days  the  few  exist- 
ing files  of  Chicago  papers  for  October,  1871,  shall  be  over- 
hauled. Some  of  them  indicated  the  new  lines  of  business 
which  had  been  created  by  the  fire.  Thus  several  scientific 
men  announced  their  readiness  to  restore  charred  papers  to 
33 


386  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

legibility;  printers  and  stationers  announced  blank  "proofs  of 
loss"  as  their  main  stock  in  trade;  and  all  the  lawyers  in  town 
were  found  to  have  been  transformed  into  "Adjusters."  The 
sign-painting  interest  also  looked  up  wonderfully.  The  "  Per- 
sonal "  advertisements  of  doubtful  morality,  asking  "  the  beau- 
tiful blonde  with  the  blue  parasol  who  noticed  gentleman  in 
McVicker's  Theater"  to  "communicate,"  etc.,  etc.,  had  all  dis- 
appeared— given  place  to  appeals  of  this  sort : 

If  the  gray-whiskered  man  who  was  seen  removing  trunks  marked  M. 
E.  W.  &  T.  C.  Welsh,  from  the  open  space  opposite  Lincoln  Park,  at 
junction  of  North  Wells  and  Clark  Streets,  will  deliver  them  at  91  South 
Peoria  Street,  he  will  be  liberally  rewarded,  and  no  questions  asked. 

PERSONAL — The  party  that  took  contents  of  large  trunk,  carried  away 
email  canvas  covered  trunk,  and  oil  painting,  left  in  carriage  on  lake- 
shore,  foot  of  Erie  Street,  last  Monday,  will  be  paid  more  for  return  of 
same  to  subscriber,  and  no  questions  asked,  than  they  will  sell  for. 
Address  J.  D.  HARVEY,  36  South  Canal  Street. 

PERSONAL — If  A.  W.  Morgan  can  furnish  information  regarding  Rillie 
Snow's  trunks,  or  if  he  has  them,  and  will  forward  to  Rillie  Snow,  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  he  will  be  liberally  rewarded. 

Some  advertisers  showed  their  disposition  to  smile  through  it 
all.  One  firm,  dealing  in  stoves,  announced  that  "  the  warm 
climate  at  the  old  stand,  168  Lake  Street,  being  rather  unfavor- 
able to  the  stove  business,"  the  business  would  henceforward  be 
carried  on  at  such  a  place.  A  firm  of  jolly  sign-painters  an- 
nounced their  removal  in  this  choice  poetic  fashion : 

SINCE  the  great  k- 

Lamity  to  our  pat- 
Rons  we  would  say 

That  we  are  not  quite  flat 

Broke,  but  conclu- 

Ded  to  move  our  ENTIRE 
STOCK  into  our  new 

Shop  (away  from  the  fire). 


THE   NEWSPAPERS   AND   THE   FIRE.  387 

111  Desplaines,  corner  Monroe, 

SIGNS  painted  at  prices 
Remarkably  LOW, 

For  MORE  information  see 

MOOERS&GOE. 

A  list  of  the  newspapers  published  in  Chicago  on  the  7th  of 
October,  1871,  was  given  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  book. 
On  the  forenoon  of  the  9th,  but  one  of  them,  and  that  an  infe- 
rior weekly,  could  boast  an  office  of  publication,  or  an  ounce  of 
type. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

A   WEEK   WITHOUT  WATER. 

A  day  of  chaos — The  exodus  from  the  city — No  water — Nights  of  terror- 
Fear  of  incendiarism — The  citizen  patrol — Stories  of  summary  venge- 
ance— Military  law — Halt! — The  relic  business — Restoration  of 
water  and  confidence. 

mUESDAY,  the  10th  of  October,  may  be  called  a  day  of 
-•-  transition  from  chaos  to  order ;  though  it  looked  upon  the 
surface  like  chaos  merely.  The  Mayor  and  city  government 
were  busy  providing  for  the  re-establishment  of  quiet  and  con- 
fidence, and  the  Board  of  Trade  and  other  authorities  in  busi- 
ness were  organizing  for  the  resurrection  of  Chicago ;  but  little 
of  this  was  apparent  to  the  general  observer.  The  visitor  to 
Chicago  (that  is  the  unburnt  part  of  it),  Tuesday  morning,  saw, 
perhaps,  first  of  all,  an  occasional  puff  of  smoke,  curling  up- 
ward from  chimney-tops  of  houses,  and  yet  not  many ;  for  the 
Mayor's  order  of  the  previous  night  had  prohibited  all  kitchen 
fires,  and  only  the  very  reckless  or  the  very  hungry  made  bold 
to  construe  the  shower  of  the  previous  night  as  a  contravention 
of  the  order.  He  saw  an  occasional  face  show  itself  on  the 
street,  haggard  and  red-eyed,  from  the  effects  of  the  previous 
twenty-four  hours'  experience.  He  saw  water-carts  moving 
through  the  streets  and  being  surrounded,  every  time  they 
halted,  by  men  in  dressing-gowns  and  women  in  their  meanest 
(388) 


A   WEEK   WITHOUT   WATER.  389 

wear,  bearing  buckets  and  pitchers,  to  buy,  at  a  shilling  a  pail- 
ful, the  fluid  which  had  suddenly  become  so  precious.  He  saw 
wagons  drive  up  to  church  doors,  carrying  sick  or  wounded 
or  burnt  victims  of  the  flames,  now  first  furnished  with  a  shel- 
ter. He  saw  fire  engines,  probably  from  abroad,  getting  into 
position  to  play  upon  the  blazing  coal  heaps  along  the  river; 
their  occasional  sharp  whistle  was  almost  the  only  sound  to 
break  the  solemn  stillness  of  the  morning.  By  and  by,  how- 
ever, the  people  began  to  stir,  and  then  suddenly  all  became  a 
Babel  of  confusion.  Wagons  of  every  description,  and  in  num- 
bers which  no  one  thought  the  city  could  boast,  were  plying 
hither  and  thither  with  reckless  speed.  The  whole  male  popu- 
lation, apparently,  was  soon  on  the  street — some  hastening  to 
the  places  of  general  congregating,  as  if  to  escape  from  the  state 
of  apprehension  in  which  the  night  had  been  passed — some 
seeking  for  tidings  of  friends  whom  they  knew  to  have  been 
burned  out — some  on  the  hunt  for  a  new  place  of  business — 
some  bound  for  the  burnt  district  on  a  tour  of  curiosity,  if  for 
no  other  motive. 

The  streets  through  the  burnt  district  were  found — some  of 
them — to  be  passable  for  carriages,  though  there  were  such  ac- 
cumulations of  fallen  bricks  and  stones,  fragments  of  tin  roofs, 
telegraph  wires,  and  rails  of  street  railways,  warped  so  as  to 
stand  like  huge  pot-bails  all  along  the  street,  that  this  method 
of  locomotion  was  by  no  means  easy.  Only  one  bridge  be- 
tween the  east  and  west  sides  of  the  river  was  passable  without 
going  far  south — that  at  Randolph  Street.  Across  the  North 
Branch  there  was  also  but  one — that  at  Kinzie  Street;  while 
there  was  for  several  days  no  communication  at  all  across  the 
main  river,  the  bridges  being  all  destroyed  and  the  Lasalle 
Street  tunnel  obstructed.  The  streets  having  been,  in  grading, 


390  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

raised  from  five  to  twelve  feet  above  the  original  level  of  the 
town,  stood  up  like  causeways,  and  conveyed  to  the  senses  a 
gloomy  impression,  like  the  skinny  bones  of  a  wasted  invalid, 
whom  we  had  known  only  as  a  rotund  person.  Over  these 
cadaverous  causeways  the  population  poured,  stopping  occasion- 
ally to  gaze  at  the  ruins  of  known  buildings,  or  to  accost  each 
other  with  the  new  salutation,  "  How  did  you  come  out  of  it?'*' 
instead  of  "  How  do  you  do?" 

The  appearance  of  the  most  conspicuous  ruins  on  this  and 
the  few  following  days  is  correctly  portrayed  by  the  cuts  which 
are  contained  in  this  work;  but  the  sight  which  confronted  the 
people  of  Chicago  the  most  painfully  on  that  day  can  not  be 
reproduced  by  the  artist.  It  was  the  completeness  of  the 
wreck ;  the  total  desolation  which  met  the  eye  on  every  hand ; 
the  utter  blankness  of  what  had  a  few  hours  before  been  so  full 
of  life,  of  associations,  of  aspirations,  of  all  things  which  kept 
the  mind  of  a  Chicagoan  so  constantly  crowded,  and  bis  nerves 
and  muscles  so  constantly  driven.  Even  the  distances  seemed  to 
have  been  burned  up  with  all  things  else,  and  any  of  the  few 
landmarks  left  would  suddenly  come  up  and  confront  one,  like 
an  apparition,  when  he  thought  it  far  away.  These  landmarks 
were  so  few,  however,  that,  even  in  the  most  frequented  quarters 
of  the  city,  which  one  had  never  missed  sight  of  for  a  day,  one 
found  himself  frequently  puzzled,  and  inquiring,  "  Where  are 
we  now?  "What  building  was  this?" 

The  nearest  street,  outside  of  the  burnt  district,  at  all 
adapted  to  the  purposes  of  commerce,  was  Canal  Street,  run- 
ning along  the  west  side  of  the  river.  At  right  angles  with 
this  were  Randolph  and  Madison  Streets,  constituting  the 
main  thorough  fares  to  the  western  city  limits;  and  these  streets, 
as  well  as  State  Street  and  Wabash  Avenue,  upon  the  south 


A  WEEK  WITHOUT  WATER.  391 

side,  were  thronged,  during  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  with 
people  in  search  of  stores  and  offices.  These  jostled  each  other 
aesperately  upon  the  rough  sidewalks  of  this  quarter,  as  did 
the  carts  and  wagons  flying  over  the  pavements,  with  trunks 
and  household  goods  from  the  lake-shore  and  prairies.  This 
rush  has  kept  up  ever  since;  but  the  character  of  the  traffic 
has  been  changed — the  wagons  being  now  laden  with  merchan- 
dise and  building  materials,  and  the  grimy,  smoky,  excited 
crowd  of  citizens  having  given  way,  in  part,  to  a  current  of 
sight-seers  from  abroad. 

These  began  to  arrive  in  large  numbers  on  the  very  day 
following  the  fire;  so  that  the  trains  which  came  into  town 
were  greatly  overloaded;  but  those  which  went  out  were  much 
more  so.  An  exodus  set  in  on  the  9th,  and  was  followed  up 
so  well  that  by  the  16th  some  60,000  people  had  left  the  city ; 
but  of  these  nearly  a  half  came  back  within  the  next  two  or 
three  weeks. 

The  distractions  of  the  day  gave  way,  as  night  approached, 
to  a  dread  of  further  fires,  founded  upon  stories  of  incendiarism, 
•which  were  rife.  Every  hour  brought  new  accounts  of  at- 
tempted arson  and  of  summary  justice  upon  the  perpetrator  of 
the  heinous  act.  The  police  reported  numerous  cases  of  men, 
women,  and  children  hung  to  lamp-posts,  beaten  to  death  or 
shot  down  for  acts  of  incendiarism.  These  were  all  religiously 
believed,  even  by  those  not  constitutionally  credulous.  The  gen- 
eral belief  was  that  not  only  was  the  town  beset  by  incendiaries 
who  burned  to  plunder,  but  that  a  mania  for  arson  had  over- 
taken the  more  desperate  and  ignorant  classes  of  the  commu- 
nity. The  consequence  was  a  fearful  state  of  panic  on  Tuesday 
and  the  following  nights.  Fifteen  hundred  special  policemen 
were  sworn  in  on  the  west  side  and  five  hundred  on  the  east 


392  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAG  RATION. 

side,  and,  armed  with  pistols,  muskets,  and  such  other  weapons 
as  they  could  produce,  patroled  every  square  in  the  city,  chal- 
lenging every  person  seen  after  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
There  were  but  few  out,  however,  since  there  was  no  longer  any 
business,  any  shows,  or  any  carousing — all  saloons  being  closed 
at  eight  o'clock  by  the  Mayor's  order.  It  will  be  readily  im- 
agined that  few  citizens  slept  soundly  through  these  nights  of 
panic  and  alarm.  With  a  remnant  of  the  city  far  more  in- 
flammable than  the  part  which  burned,  with  incendiaries  prowl- 
ing about  to  kindle  fires,  with  plenty  of  wind  prevailing  to 
spread  them,  with  no  water  to  check  them,  and  with'  the  bright 
glare  of  the  burning  coal  piles  to  deceive  the  watcher  ever  and 
anon  into  the  belief  that  the  dreaded  conflagration  had  actually 
set  in,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  people  of  the  West  Division 
were  kept  in  a  miserable  state  for  the  few  days  and  nights  suc- 
ceeding the  fire,  before  the  military  came  to  their  relief,  and 
some  water  from  the  river  was  got  into  the  mains,  and  the 
stories  of  incendiarism  were,  for  the  most  part,  exploded. 

On  the  10th,  it  was  found  that  the  bakers  and  provision 
dealers  were,  as  might  have  been  expected,  putting  up  the  price 
of  food.  The  supply  of  provisions,  it  was  supposed,  had  been 
seriously  affected  by  the  conflagration ;  the  wholesale  meat  mar- 
kets, located  on  Kinzie  Street,  were  all  destroyed;  but  the 
sharks  found  Chicago  a  bad  town  in  which  to  get  up  a  "corner" 
on  provisions,  for  the  supply  was  not  interfered  with  for  a 
day ;  and  even  had  not  the  Mayor  come  out  with  a  stringent 
proclamation  against  extortion,  *  it  is  not  likely  that  any  rise 
in  prices  of  eatables  could  have  been  maintained.  Not  a  single 
article  of  food,  or  fuel,  or  wear  was,  to  our  knowledge,  enhanced 
in  price  on  account  of  the  fire.  On  the  contrary,  meats  became 

*  See  Appendix  "  B,"  I. 


A  WEEK  WITHOUT  WATER.  393 

cheaper  than  ever  on  the  week  succeeding  the  conflagration, 
and  so  continued.  Perhaps  there  is  not  another  city  in  the 
world  where  such  quantities  of  provisions  could  have  been 
destroyed,  with  such  a  result. 

Meantime,  what  were  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  city 
doing  toward  restoring  order  and  confidence  to  the  citizens? 
The  Mayor  (R.  B.  Mason)  had  convoked  his  staff  on  Monday 
forenoon,  and  issued  a  proclamation  suited  to  the  exigency, 
pledging  the  faith  of  the  city  for  the  expenses  of  relieving  the 
suffering,  warning  all  lawless  persons  against  the  consequences 
of  their  acts,  and  assuring  the  citizens  that  the  fire  had  spent  its 
force,  and  that  "  all  would  soon  be  well."  The  headquarters  of 
the  city  government  were  fixed  in  the  church  on  Washington 
Street,  a  mile  west  of  the  river.  Other  proclamations  followed 
in  quick  succession;  one,  which  appeared  on  the  10th,  giving 
orders  relative  to  police  organization,  and  investing  "the  mili- 
tary" with  full  police  power.  Unfortunately,  however,  "the 
military"  of  Chicago  was  a  very  limited  army — the  only 
force  capable  of  mustering  and  arming  was  two  companies  of 
Norwegian  militia,  who  were  put  on  duty  on  Tuesday. 

Militia  companies  from  other  Illinois  citips  began  to  come  in 
on  Tuesday  also — six  companies  in  all,  from  Bloomingtou, 
Springfield,  Champaign,  and  other  towns,  having  arrived  by 
Wednesday,  under  the  charge  of  Adjutant  General  Dilger,  who 
was  sent  by  Governor  Palmer  for  the  purpose.  Up  to  this 
time  the  panic  had  been  increasing.  But  little  confidence  was 
felt  in  the  police  force,  although  that  body  numbered  near  400 
regulars,  and  any  number  of  "specials."  The  people  were  in 
such  a  state  that  they  welcomed  the  sight  of  muskets  and  the 
signs  of  martial  law  as  heartily  as  the  citizens  of  this  free 
country  are  generally  supposed  to  abominate  such  demonstra- 


394  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

tions  of  force.  Especially  did  they  hail  with  acclamation  the 
announcement — made  in  a  proclamation  on  the  llth — that  the 
preservation  of  good  order  in  the  city  was  entrusted  to  Lieu  ten- 
ant-general Sheridan.* 

This  gallant  officer  immediately,  by  virtue  of  his  authority, 
as  commander  of  the  Military  Division  of  the  Missouri,  ordered 
hither  six  companies  of  regular  U.  S.  troops — two  from  Omaha, 
three  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  one  from  Fort  Scott.  He 
was  also  furnished  by  General  Halleck  with  four  companies 
from  Kentucky ;  so  that  he  had  soon  a  full  regiment  of  troops 
at  his  command,  exclusive  of  the  State  militia.  The  regulars 
were  stationed  through  the  Burnt  District  of  the  South  Divis- 
ion, which  being  destitute  of  street  lamps  and  strewn  with 
valuable  safes — two  or  three  score  to  every  block — was  ex- 
tremely liable  to  the  depredations  of  thieves.  It  was  currently 
reported  that  a  thousand  of  these  had  left  New  York  on  the 
evening  of  the  9th  for  Chicago.  Doubtless  there  were  many 
such  who  started  hither,  but  the  preparations,  and  the  announce- 
ment that  Sheridan  was  at  the  helm,  doubtless  demoralized 
their  calculations,  for  few  of  them  were  heard  from  through 
their  works.  The  militia  troops  were  set  to  patrolling  the  un- 
burnt  division  of  the  city,  in  which  duty  they  were  superseded, 
before  Saturday  night,  by  a  battalion  raised  under  Colonel 
Frank  T.  Sherman,  ex-postmaster,  and  sworn  in  for  twenty 
days'  service. 

For  several  days  Chicago  might  be  said  to  bristle  with  bayo- 
nets. Military  rule  seemed  to  be  the  form  of  government  best 
adapted  to  the  emergency  in  which  the  community  found  itself 
and  was  unanimously  approved  by  the  hearts  of  the  citizens, 
whatever  constitutional  lawyers  and  jealous  police  commis- 

*See  Appendix  "B,"  I. 


A  WEEK  WITHOUT  WATER.  395 

sioners  may  have  thought  of  it.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
American  Eagle's  protecting  wing,  the  people  went  and  came 
with  equanimity  about  their  business,  and  at  night  they  lay 
down  and  slept  soundly,  lulled  by  the  tread  of  the  vigilant 
sentry.  The  abnormal  susceptibility  to  excitement  about  fire 
continued,  however,  and  whenever  there  was  an  alarm  sounded, 
you  might  see  a  sudden  rush  of  the  whole  population  in  that 
vicinity,  and  a  very  sudden  stamping  out  of  the  incipient  con- 
flagration. Millionaires  (those  who  had  been  such)  would  rush 
out  to  twopenny  fires  and  come  back,  much  blown,  with  full 
particulars.  The  Fire  Department  seemed  to  have  been  mus- 
tered out  of  service,  and  the  old-fashioned  era  of  axes  and 
water-buckets  to  have  returned.  A  gentleman's  barn  took  fire 
on  Wabash  Avenue,  and  before  an  engine  could  arrive,  the 
citizens  had  formed  a  line  from  the  lake  to  the  barn,  and  ex- 
tinguished the  fire  by  passing  buckets  of  water. 

Meantime,  however,  the  engines  of  the  Water-works  were 
still  disabled,  though  a  hundred  men  were  working  on  them 
constantly,  night  and  day.  A  way  had  been  found,  however, 
to  fill  many  of  the  mains  by  pumping  water  from  the  river  into 
them.  Locomotives — all  sorts  of  engines — were  rigged  to 
pumps  and  set  to  work  with  all  their  might;  and  with  euoh 
success  that,  in  a  week  after  the  fire,  about  a  third  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  inhabited  portions  of  the  city  had  water — such  as  it 
was — in  their  basements.  By  this  time,  however,  it  was  found 
out  that  the  stories  about  the  catching  and  hanging  of  incen- 
diaries were  all  false,  and  the  popular  mind  was  quite  easy  about 
fires ;  especially  as  copious  showers  of  rain  had  fallen  on  the 
sixteenth. 

The  privation  resulting  from  a  lack  of  water  for  drinking 
and  culinary  purposes  was  still  seriously  felt,  however.  The 


396  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

people  were  obliged  to  supply  themselves  from  the  artesian 
wells  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  city,  or  from  the  lake; 
and  the  progress  of  the  work  at  the  Water-works  was  anxiously 
watched.  The  engineer,  Mr.  Cregier,  could  not  give  any  posi- 
tive assurance  whether  the  engine  at  which  he  was  working, 
with  his  three  hundred  machinists,  would  not  prove  to  be  so 
swollen  or  warped  by  the  fire  that  its  delicate  pistons  and  cylin- 
ders would  refuse  to  play.  In  that  case  it  was  not  simply  u 
week,  but  a  winter  without  water!  On  the  evening  of  the 
17th,  just  eight  days  after  the  fall  of  the  insane  roof  of  shin- 
gles, the  thousand  pieces  of  the  great  engine  were  all  put  in 
place,  and  the  crucial  experiment  made  on  which  so  much  com- 
fort or  privation,  health  or  sickness,  soberness  or  intemperance, 
depended.  The  fires  were  lighted  under  the  boilers,  and  a  head 
of  steam  was  put  on  in  order  to  thoroughly  test  the  engine  be- 
fore setting  it  to  work.  The  engineer,  and  the  whole  corps  of 
tireless  men  who  had  toiled  to  complete  the  work,  stood  around. 
It  was  an  anxious  moment,  and  the  faces  of  those  present  be- 
tokened the  intensity  of  the  strain.  The  word  was  given,  and 
at  8:27  o'clock  the  machine  was  set  in  motion,  the  giant  wheel 
slowly  revolved,  and  once  more  the  iron  heart  throbbed  on 
Chicago  Avenue,  forcing  the  precious  fluid  from  the  lake  at 
each  pulsation  through  the  monster  arteries  away  to  the  city 
limits.  And  then,  once  more,  the  city  breathed  freely;  and  not 
only  breathed,  but  drank  freely,  not  considering  that  the  pipes 
had  become  foul  from  the  deposits  of  the  muddy  stream  from 
the  river.  The  consequence  was  much  sickness  for  about  two 
weeks,  especially  among  children. 

On  the  24th  the  city  was  visited  by  dense  clouds  of  smoke, 
which  rendered  the  atmosphere  almost  utterly  opaque — as  much 
so  as  the  thickest  fog  of  an  autumn  morning.  It  did  not  come 


A    WEEK   WITHOUT  WATER.  397 

from  the  coal  heaps,  several  of  which  were  burning,  for  the 
whole  country  for  a  radius  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  around 
Chicago  was  visited  by  the  same  phenomenon.  The  smoke  was 
doubtless  from  the  burning  woods  of  Michigan,  and  was  brought 
across  the  lake  by  a  strong  caster ;  but  that  it  should  visit  so 
large  an  area  at  once,  and  only  for  a  single  day,  while  no 
similar  effect  came  from  the  great  Chicago-  fire,  nor  from  the 
vast  burnings  then  going  on  in  Wisconsin,  was  somewhat  re- 
markable. 

The  relic  business  came  to  be  a  notable  feature  of  the  situa- 
tion about  these  days.  This  was  carried  on  by  boys,  who 
gathered  relics  of  the  conflagration  from  the  cellars  of  ruined 
stores — melted  crockery  and  steel  ware  being  the  staples — and 
peddled  them  at  ridiculously  low  prices  to  visitors  and  citizens. 
"Relics  of  the  fire,"  their  regular  cry,  became  a  sort  of  by- 
word ;  so  that  people,  advertising  for  board,  in  the  newspapers, 
would  jocularly  describe  themselves  as  "relics  of  the  late  fire." 
Fragments  of  the  Court-house  bell  were  the  relics  most  sought 
after,  and  are  highly  prized  by  those  fortunate  enough  to  secure 
them.  The  Italians,  ever  on  the  lookout  for  odd  branches  of 
trade,  went  into  the  relic  business  more  elaborately  than  the 
gamins.  Passing  along  Randolph  Street,  a  week  or  more  after 
the  fire,  the  writer  came  upon  one  of  these  compatriots  of  Gari- 
baldi, whose  countenance,  indeed,  bore  a  striking  resemblance 
to  that  reputed  hero,  except  that  it  had  taken  on  a  hard  Yankee 
look  which  almost  disguised  its  nationality  until  the  speech 
of  the  man  betrayed  it.  He  had  pre-empted,  miner  fashion,  a 
"  claim "  consisting  of  the  basement  of  a  crockery  store,  and 
had  excavated  a  few  do/en  pieces  of  demoralized  table-ware. 
Surrounded  by  these  and  by  two  large  heaps  of  rubbish,  and 
covered  from  head  to  foot  with  a  thick  sprinkling  of  ashes,  he 


398  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

harangued  his  audience:  "Step  up,  dzentlemen,  buy  relics  of 
the  fire.  Here's  beayoutefool  china  soocher  bool  (displaying  a 
badly  smoked  and  misshapen  article) ;  you  haf  him  For  only 
twanety-five  cents.  Here's  beayoutefool  set  cups — eight  of 'em 
all  froze  together — do  for  walking-stick;"  and  he  found  cus- 
tomers pretty  readily.  Himself  undoubtedly  a  victim  of  the 
conflagration,  he  was  a  true  specimen  of  the  Chicago  business 
man — ready  to  do  business  on  no  capital  if  none  is  at  hand,  and 
prompt  to  organize  victory  out  of  defeat;  to  "mount,"  as  the 
poet  says,  "  on  stepping  stones  of  our  dead  selves." 

The  period  of  military  rule  came  to  an  end  on  the  23d  of 
October.  It  was  doubtless  by  a  melancholy  occurrence  which 
served  to  elicit  some  serious  animadversions  on  the  policy  of 
employing  military  usages  to  the  extent  which  characterized 
this  period.  Thomas  Grosvenor,  Esq.,  prosecuting  attorney  for 
the  city  in  the  police-courts,  was  shot  fatally,  on  the  morning  of 
the  21st,  by  a  young  man  named  Treat,  belonging  to  Colonel 
Sherman's  "home-guard,"  and  acting  as  sentinel  near  the 
Douglas  University,  of  which  he  is  a  student.  Mr.  Grosvenor, 
going  home  after  midnight,  was  challenged  by  the  sentinel,  and 
refused  to  halt.  Treat  told  him  he  should  fire  upon  him  if  he 

did  not  obey.     The  reply  was  "Fire,  and  be  d d."     The 

sentinel,  true  to  his  word,  drew  up  and  fired,  shooting  Gros- 
venor through  the  lungs.  He  was  soon  after  arrested  and  held 
for  the  action  of  the  grand  jury.  The  popular  voice  generally 
sustained  the  boy,  and  blamed  the  victim  for  his  rashness ;  but 
a  gloom  was  spread  over  the  community  by  the  event,  not  only 
because  the  deceased  was  a  popular  man,  but  because  the  situa- 
tion had  really  become  such  as  not  to  require  military  aid  any 
longer.  Accordingly,  on  the  23d,  Mayor  Mason,  after  some 
sharp  correspondence  with  the  Board  of  Police  Commissioners, 


A   WEEK   WITHOUT   WATER.  399 

who  had  been  piqued  from  the  first  at  the  temporary  diminution 
of  their  consequence,  relieved  General  Sheridan  of  the  duty 
•which  he  had  asked  him  to  accept,  twelve  days  before.  And 
thus  ended  the  period  of  dearth,  of  panic,  and  of  military  law.* 

*  Unless  we  are  to  make  a  note  of  a  blustering  correspondence  inaugu- 
rated by  Governor  Palmer,  who  considered  his  prerogatives  invaded  by 
the  "invasion"  of  his  territory  by  United  States  troops,  and  proposed  to 
indite  General  Sheridan  for  the  murder  of  Grosvenor,  this  is  a  phase  of 
the  afiair  not  by  any  means  completed  at  the  time  of  putting  this  work  to 
press.  Nor  is  it  of  interest,  except  as  a  matter  of  constitutional  law,  the 
fact  being  that  the  people  of  Chicago,  whose  welfare  was  mainly  concerned, 
were  well  satisfied  with  the  action  of  Mayor  Mason  in  taking  the  respon- 
sibility at  a  time  when  the  safety  of  the  people  (the  "supreme  law") 
seemed  to  demand  such  action.  The  main  question  which  the  courts, 
when  called  on,  will  have  to  decide  is,  apparently,  the  legal  right  of  the 
mayor  to  put  the  keeping  of  the  city's  peace  out  of  the  hands  of  the  police 
authorities,  even  with  their  consent,  which  he  claims  was  obtained. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

THE  CHURCHES  AFTER  THE   FIRE. 

The  next  Sunday — Assembling  under  the  ruined  walls — Robert  Collyer'a 
adventures — Trying  to  save  Unity — Lessons  of  hope  and  courage. 

IT  was  a  sad  day,  the  Sabbath  after  the  fire,  when  the  stimu- 
lus of  work  was  off,  and  quiet  meditation  was  in  order. 
The  solemnity  and  suggestiveness  of  the  day  were,  moreover, 
greatly  heightened  by  the  meetings  which  the  worshipers  of 
the  ruined  churches  held  under  the  walls  of  their  beloved 
sanctuaries.  Chicago  had  come  to  be  noted  for  the  beauty  of 
her  church  architecture,  and  the  large  number  of  her  stately 
churches,  built  as  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  of  rough 
ashlars  of  Illinois  gray  limestone.  A  score  or  more  of  the  best 
churches  destroyed  in  this  Conflagration  were  nearly  new,  and 
had  been  built  only  after  great  effort.  The  congregations  of 
the  most  of  them  gathered  on  Sunday  morning,  and  were  ad- 
dressed in  the  open  air  by  their  pastors.  As  a  specimen  of 
these  exercises,  we  will  describe  those  at  the  church  of  the  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer,  whose  name  is  the  best  known  of  any  Chicago 
clergyman's.  .  Mr.  Collyer  had  labored  during  five  or  six  years 
very  zealously  to  build  up  his  congregation,  and  rake  together 
funds  enough  to  erect  their  splendid  church,  which,  with  its 
organ,  cost  $135,000.  An  account  of  how  they  tried  to  save 
it,  Mr.  Collyer  has  written  out  for  us,  along  with  some  other 
(400) 


THE  CHURCHES  AFTER  THE  FIRE.  401 

of  his  adventures  on  the  night  of  the  fire,  in  the  subjoined 
sketch : 

"You  want  me  to  tell  you  how  we  lost  Unity  Church.  I 
was  roused  from  a  heavy  sleep,  at  half-past  one  on  Monday 
morning,  by  my  wife,  who  said  the  fire  was  increasing  on  the 
south  side,  a  storm  of  fire  flakes,  sweeping  over  northward 
and  eastward,  and  we  must  get  the  children  up  and  dress  them 
— it  was  not  safe  to  delay  another  minute. 

"I  was  broad  awake  in  an  instant,  did  just  as  I  was  bidden, 
and  then,  when  we  were  all  ready,  we  roused  some  of  the 
neighbors,  who  dressed  their  children  too,  and  the  policeman  on 
our  beat  told  us  he  had  roused  up  all  the  people  in  his  district. 
We  did  not  think  then  there  was  very  much  danger  the  north 
side  would  take  fire,  except  from  these  flying  embers,  and  they 
were  drifting  eastward,  toward  the  lake,  more  than  they  were 
northward  toward  our  street.  So  when  the  children  begged 
me  to  go  with  them  over  the  bridge  to  see  the  fire,  I  went.  We 
crossed  at  Wells  Street,  because  that  was  almost  entirely  free 
from  the  falling  flakes;  the  Court-house  was  afire  at  'that  time, 
the  dome  standing  almost  white  with  the  intense  heat,  and 
buildings  were  catching  to  the  eastward  rapidly.  We  wanted 
to  cross  back  by  Clark  or  State  Streets,  but  by  that  time  the 
shower  of  fire  was  so  heavy  on  Water  Street,  eastward  of  Wells, 
that  I  durst  not  take  the  children  down  in  that  direction,  so  we 
went  back  as  we  had  come,  reaching  Clark  Street  by  Michigan. 
By  that  time  the  north  side  seemed  to  be  thoroughly  alarmed ; 
there  were  lights  in  all  the  houses,  swift  moving  figures  could 
be  seen  in  the  rooms,  and  the  people  were  getting  their  belong- 
ings into  the  streets.  When  we  got  home  I  sat  down  a  little 
while,  and  then  went  to  the  corner  of  State  Street  and  Chicago 
Avenue,  to  see  how  the  fire  seemed  across  the  bridge.  As  I 
34 


402  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

stood  there  the  great  unfinished  spire  on  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Name  began  to  lurch  eastward  in  the  terrible  tornado, 
and,  as  I  watched  it,  went  down  with  a  great  crash  on  the  roof 
of  the  church  northward.  This  must  have  been  an  hour  before 
the  fire  swept  up  as  far  as  that  corner.  John  Wentworth  came 
along  just  then  with  a  boy  and  two  bags,  which  he  said  were 
full  of  papers;  I  invited  him  to  come  in  and  sit  down,  as  my 
house  was  near;  but  he  said  he  should  go  on,  because  the  whole 
city  was  going  to  be  burnt  up.  I  did  not  believe  him,  and 
walked  home ;  but  presently  my  little  son  ran  in  and  said  : 
'Papa,  the  fire  has  crossed  at  State  Street.'  I  ran  down  and 
found  it  was  so.  Then  there  was  a  light  a  little  south  of  Lill's 
Brewery — the  neighbors  said  it  was  a  cooper's  shop.  My  wife 
had  already  begun  to  pack.  I  took  a  load  on  my  shoulders 
and  started  for  the  church.  As  I  turned  the  corner  a  poor  woman 
said '  Oh !  Mr.  Colly er,  that  is  not  what  you  meant,  is  it  ? '  '  Yes,' 
I  said,  '  Chicago  Avenue  is  going,  but  I  think  we  can  save  the 
church ;  you  had  better  all  come  there  and  bring  your  things.' 
By  daylight  the  north  side  of  the  church  was  heaped  up  with 
the  poor  belongings  of  many  German  families,  while  they  shel- 
tered with  their  children  inside.  Our  own  people  came  also 
and  piled  many  precious  things  in  the  lecture-room,  and  in  my 
study.  Indeed,  we  hindered  nobody ;  all  came  in  who  would, 
and  brought  what  they  had.  The  fire  then  was  sweeping  up 
eastward,  and  a  little  more  slowly  westward.  Ogden  School 
caught  from  Chicago  Avenue,  then  Chestnut  Street  from  Ogden 
School,  and  then  the  New  England  Church.  By  this  lime  we 
had  begun  to  break  down  the  fences,  and  hammer  away  at  the 
sidewalks  with  our  hands  and  feet,  for  we  had  no  tools,  except, 
I  think,  one  hatchet  and  a  shovel.  A  number  of  young  men 
belonging  to  the  church;  and  some  others  I  did  not  know, 


THE   CHURCHES  AFTER  THE   FIRE.  403 

worked  with  all  their  might.  Mr.  N.  E.  Sheldon,  who  lived 
near,  caine  up  and  said:  '  Mr.  Collyer,  I  think  we  can  save  your 
church — the  fire  will  catch  in  the  basement  first,  where  the  coal 
and  wood  is;  let  us  go  down  there.'  So  some  staid  outside  to 
fight  off  the  fire,  and  I  went  down  with  Mr.  Sheldon,  and 
three  or  four  more,  to  take  care  of  the  inside.  We  pulled  back 
the  kindling-wood,  got  water  out  of  the  waste-pipe,  wet  the  win- 
dows, and  Mahlon  D.  Ogden  generously  let  us  have  as  much 
more  water  as  we  asked  for  out  of  his  cistern,  though  he 
knew  it  was  all  he  had  to  save  his  own  home,  for  by  that  time 
the  Water-works  had  gone.  I  was  very  jealous  all  the  while 
lest  the  fiend  should  come  on  us  some  other  way,  and  take 
us  by  surprise.  There  was  deadly  danger  I  knew,  and  a  lit- 
tle host  of  men  and  boys  were  carrying  my  library  out  of  the 
study  and  tumbling  it  into  the  park  for  fear  of  the  worst. 
When  we  felt  pretty  sure  that  the  fire  was  fought  off  from  the 
lower  windows  and  doors,  I  went  with  an  armful  of  books  my- 
self, possibly  several,  I  do  not  clearly  remember;  but  I  know 
that  as  I  came  back  out  of  the  park  I  saw  a  little  puff  of  black 
smoke,  intensely  black,  rising  above  the  roof  on  the  north  side 
of  the  church,  near  the  tower.  It  rose  up  presently  into  a 
great  cloud ;  then  I  knew  we  were  beaten,  shouted  to  the  men 
to  come  out  of  the  cellar,  told  what  women  were  left  to  get 
away  with  their  children  as  fast  as  they  could,  for  the  church 
would  presently  be  in  a  blaze,  and  either  then,  or  a  little 
sooner,  I  think,  I  went  up  stairs  into  my  pulpit,  where  I 
had  stood  the  night  before  and  talked  to  my  people  about 
poor,  burnt  Paris,  as  I  saw  it  in  July,  took  one  great,  mighty 
look  at  it,  as  you  look  at  a  dear  friend  you  know  you  will  nerer 
see  again,  then  I  took  the  Bible,  came  down  stairs,  locked  my 
study-door,  put  the  key  in  my  pocket,  and  came  away.  I  have 


404  CHICAGO   AND   THE  GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

the  key  still,  and  when  we  get  another  Unity  Church,  I  shall 
have  a  lock  made  for  that  key,  and  the  lock  put  on  to  my 
study-door.  Very  truly,  yours, 

"ROBERT  COLLYER. 

"P.  S. — As  I  read  this  over,  I  find  I  must  make  a  stronger 
mark  than  I  have  made  against  Mr.  Sheldon's  name.  He  was 
not  a  member  of  my  church,  I  only  knew  him  by  sight,  but 
when  he  came  among  us  it  was  like  a  captain  with  an  unflinch- 
ing heart  coming  into  a  regiment  that  has  half  a  mind  to  give 
up  the  fight.  We  had  fought  a  hard  battle ;  he  put  fresh  cour- 
age and  pluck  into  us  all,  and  worked  like  a  hero  to  save 
our  precious  pile.  If  there  was  a  special  Providence  over 
Mahlon  Ogden's  house  to  save  it,  I  think  its  cool  wings  must 
have  come  down  and  about  the  place  while  his  kinsman 
(Sheldon)  was  doing  such  a  grand,  unselfish  work  to  save  our 
church.  R.  C." 

"When  the  next  Sunday  came,  Mr.  Collyer,  as  well  as  the 
pastors  of  the  New  England  Church  and  St.  James's  Episcopal 
Church,  not  far  off,  gathered  his  hearers  under  the  Avails  of  the 
sanctuary  and  addressed  them.  The  preacher  stood  upon  a 
carved  stone  which  had  fallen  from  the  arch  above,  with  hi.' 
people  gathered  about  him  in  a  half  circle.  The  scene  is  de- 
scribed by  a  spectator  as  calling  to  mind  the  meetings  of 
the  early  saints  in  caves  and  subterranean  tombs.  Plai* 
hymns  were  sung,  and  prayers  put  up,  after  which  the  pastoi 
said: 

"I  wanted  to  get  you  to  come  together  this  morning,  my 
friends,  as  many  as  could,  who  were  left  of  our  congregation, 
in  order  that  I  might  say  a  word  or  two  to  you  out  from  my 


THE   CHURCHES   AFTER   THE   FIRE.  405 

own  heart,  and  then  we  might  go  home  and  think  it  over,  and 
realize  something  of  our  altered,  and  yet  unalterable,  relations. 
I  could  not  before  trust  myself  to  speak  to  you  in  regard  to 
the  great  thought  nearest  to  the  heart  of  each ;  I  could  not 
trust  you  to  listen.  The  calamity  was  too  near,  and  we  all 
broke  clown  in  the  effort;  that  is  a  subject  that  we  must 
approach  no  more. 

"  Some  men  of  a  stronger  heart  are,  perhaps,  able  to  thank 
God  for  this  great  affliction.  I,  myself,  have  tried  to  find  some 
altitude  of  soul,  some  height  of  moral  sentiment,  from  which  I 
might  look  down  and  thank  God  for  overshadowing  us  with 
this  great  sorrow.  To  such  an  elevation  I  may  climb  at  last, 
but  I  have  not  yet  attained  it.  Perhaps  I  may  say,  with  the 
psalmist,  at  length:  'It  is  well  that  I  was  afflicted;  before  I 
was  afflicted  I  went  astray,  but  now  I  keep  Thy  law/  I 
might,  in  such  an  event,  find  the  elements  of  grace  for  this 
life  and  that  which  is  to  come,  -\fhich  could  not  have  been 
found  except  in  such  a  calamity. 

"  But  I  can  not  get  up  to  it  this  morning.  I  see,  as  yet,  too 
vividly  your  homes  burning,  and  you  all,  my  poor,  dear  friends, 
fleeing  in  mortal  terror  for  your  lives,  and  I  wanting  to  help 
you,  and  myself  powerless  to  act.  Well,  well !  It  is  too  near. 
[A  pause,  and  audible  sobs  in  the  congregation.]  We  will  thank 
God  as  soon  as  we  can.  These  great  walls  of  hinderance  are 
about  you  now.  One  day,  doubtless,  we  shall  be  big  enough 
in  soul,  and  good  enough,  to  get  into  this  atmosphere  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  for  this  great  sorrow." 

lie  then  told  his  hearers  how  well  they  could  get  along 
without  the  property  which  they  had  lost ;  how  they  had  once 
been  even  poorer  than  they  were  now;  and  how  Lot's  wife 
had  been  turned  into  a  pillar  of  salt  (which  he  said  meant  a 


406  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

bitter  woman)  for  turning  back  and  mourning  over  a  burning 
Sodom.  Further  on  he  said,  with  much  feeling: 

"  The  relations  between  us  as  pastor  and  people,  dear  friends, 
has  been  of  the  deepest  and  truest  love  ever  known.  I  have 
always  felt  that  it  was  so,  and  you  have  felt  it  too.  Now  we 
have  received  a  shock  in  this  relation  such  as  we  never 
expected,  such  as  we  never  could  have  expected.  For  two  or 
three  days  after  it  came  I  was  stunned  and  did  not  know 
what  to  do.  I  could  tell  nothing  about  the  future.  - 1  think 
I  must  have  been  personally  injured  by  my  long  fight  with 
the  fire.  It  was  a  day  or  two  before  I  began  to  look  about 
and  think  with  myself  what  I  could  say  to  these,  my  children. 
At  last  it  came  to  me  in  one  word — and  this  is  what  I  have  to 
Bay  about  it.  If  you  will  stay  by  me  I  will  stay  with  you ;  if 
you  will  work  with  me,  I  will  work  with  you,  and  we  will 
make  the  best  fight  we  can  against  this  adverse  situation.  I 
am  not  going  to  be  a  burden  to  you.  You  can  not  find  a 
cheaper  man  anywhere  than  I  will  be.  I  preached  seven  years 
for  seventy-five  cents  a  year.  I  won't  take  any  more  than 
that  if  you  can't  spare  any  more.  I  do  n't  mean  to  task  Unity 
Church,  but  I  mean  to  stick  by  you  if  you  will  stick  by  me. 
Never  fear  for  me,  I  can  get  along  well  enough.  People  will 
give  me  more  for  a  lecture  than  they  will  give  some  folks,  and 
if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  I  can  make  as  good  horse- 
shoes and  nails  as  any  man  in  Chicago." 

It  did  not  become  necessary,  however,  for  Collyer  to  resume 
his  hammer  and  anvil,  for  gifts  poured  in  upon  him  and  his 
church  from  all  quarters.  He  himself  received  as  many  as  a 
hundred  and  seventeen  packages  by  express  in  a  single  day, 
and  his  church  was  at  once  made  the  care  of  many  wealthy 


THE   CHURCHES   AFTER   THE   FIRE.  407 

societies  at  the  East,  which  furnished  money  enough  to  rebuild 
it.  Mr.  Collyer  went  East  after  a  little;  and  while  in  Boston 
received  many  gifts,  including  an  order  from  a  wealthy  Uni- 
tarian to  draw  on  him  quarterly  for  a  salary  of  §5,000  a  year, 
in  addition  to  the  $3,000  which  his  parish  had  already  voted 
him. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

SYMPATHY     AND     RELIEF. 

How  the  world  was  shocked  by  the  event — The  excitement  in  America — 
Nothing  like  it  since  the  war — Showers  of  money  and  avalanches  of 
goods'for  the  sufferers — Scenes  and  deeds  in  New  York,  Boston,  Cin- 
cinnati, St  Louis,  London,  and  other  cities. 

WE  can  not  tell  the  story  of  the  Relief  of  Chicago.-  We 
can  not  adequately  describe  the  acts  in  which  all  Chris- 
tendom leant  over  Chicago  and  poured  the  precious  balm  of 
sympathy  into  her  wounds,  and  bathed  with  the  wine  of  relief 
•her  parched  and  blistered  lips.  In  the  first  place,  to  give  a 
full  account  of  the  measures  in  aid  of  the  sufferers  by  the  Chi- 
cago fire,  would  be  to  write  the  history  of  the  civilized  world 
for  a  very  eventful  week;  for  the  whole  civilized  world  was 
mainly  absorbed,  during  that  week,  in  getting  news  from  and 
sending  succor  to  Chicago.  Besides,  if  we  had  all  the  facts 
gathered  in  some  series  of  volumes  more  bulky  than  any  li- 
brary now  left  in  Chicago,  they  could  not  be  justly  epitomized 
here.  Those  facts  which  are  at  hand  are  so  numerous  that  we 
can  hardly  do  aught  more  than  to  let  out  a  few  at  random, 
though  each  presses  itself  upon  us  as  richly  worthy  of  men- 
tion. 

If  the  spread  of  the  flames  through  the  streets  of  Chicago 
was  swift  as  the  wind,  the  spread  of  the  news  of  it,  and  of 

the  sympathy  which  it  awakened,  was  infinitely  more  so.     A 
(403) 


SYMPATHY  AND  BELIEF.  409 

speaker,  addressing  one  of  the  ten  thousand  relief-meetings 
which  sprung  up  in  every  city  and  hamlet  in  America,  de- 
scribed this  phenomenon  well  when  he  said  there  was  no  acre 
of  the  United  States  but  that  some  cinder  from  Chicago  had 
lighted  on  it  and  kindled  the  fire  of  sympathy.  And  yet  that 
figure  does  not  express  the  suddenness  and  directness  of  the 
passage  of  the  feeling.  Chicago  was  connected  with  the  world 
more  intimately  than  perhaps  any  other  city.  In  the  first 
place,  nearly  every  county,  district,  and  department  in  the 
Northern  United  States,  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  conti- 
nental Europe,  is  represented  in  Chicago  by  persons  who  have 
immigrated  hither,  and  left  kindred  and  acquaintances  at  home. 
In  the  next  place,  the  rapid  growth  of  the  city,  and  the  re- 
markably active,  enterprising,  ambitious,  audacious  class  of  citi- 
zens which  has  accumulated  with  that  growth,  have  attracted  to 
Chicago  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  brought  hither  travelers 
from  all  climes.  Indeed,  the  press  and  the  telegraph,  which 
make  all  men  travelers,  in  a  sense,  had  been  for  the  past  few 
years  so  full  of  Chicago,  as  a  theme,  that  every  body  in  Christen- 
dom knew  Chicago,  or  thought  he  did.  The  average  emotion 
toward  Chicago  was  that  of  admiration;  which,  at  least,  was 
not  sufficiently  offset  by  any  other  feeling  to  prevent  the  most 
hearty  and  unalloyed  sentiment  of  regret  and  practical  sym- 
pathy when  the  news  of  hef  misfortune  came  flashing  along 
the  wires.  To  say  nothing  now  about  the  veins  and  arteries 
of  commerce,  which  permeated  the  whole  civilized  world,  and 
makes  the  blood  ebb  away  at  New  York  or  London  whenever 
Chicago  bleeds,  there  is  a  nervous  system,  of  wires  and  print- 
ers' types,"  which  connects  all  together,  and  which  places  Chi- 
cago in  close  rapport  with  all  parts  of  the  world,  especially 
Anglo-Saxondom  and  the  greater  Germany.  The  world  never 
35 


410  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

knew  how  complete  and  perfect  this  system  is,  until  the  shock 
at  Chicago  thrilled  through  all  lands,  and  made  the  farthest 
extremities  smart  with  pain  or  tingle  with  anxiety.  The  com- 
munity of  language,  the  community  of  interests,  but  revealed 
the  community  of  human  nature  and  human  sympathy,  one 
touch  of  which  can  "  make  the  whole  world  kin."  The  proud 
cities  of  the  earth  then  wept  on  each  other's  breast,  and  found 
that  they  were  rivals  no  more,  but  loving  sisters.  Blessed  is 
that  affliction  which  reveals  such  precious  things ! 

The  desoiation  of  Chicago  was  fully  known  to  all  her  citi- 
zens at  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  October.  Within 
three  or  four  hours  it  was  known  in  fully  ten  thousand  cities 
and  villages  of  the  United  States,  and  ten  millions  of  people 
were  bestirring  themselves,  and  asking  each  other  anxiously  for 
tidings  from  the  stricken  city.  Almost  the  first  thought  which 
suggested  itself  was  of  the  destitution  which  must  prevail, 
where  a  hundred  thousand  people  had  been  so  suddenly  made 
homeless,  and  (as  was  supposed)  their  whole  stock  of  provisions, 
'clothing — in  fact,  all  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  city — de- 
stroyed, as  it  were,  in  a  breath.  The  heart  of  every  man  told 
him  what  to  do  at  once. 

The  West  had,  fortunately,  great  stores  of  provision  and 
of  comfortable  clothing;  and  these  were  sped  on  their  way  so 
promptly  that,  by  the  morning  of  the  10th,  within  thirty-two 
hours  of  the  first  kindling  of  the  flames  in  Chicago,  fifty  car- 
loads of  provisions  had  arrived,  to  the  relief  of  the  destitute, 
some  of  them  coming  from  towns  three  hundred  miles  away; 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  had  been  contributed,  by 
means  of  the  same  beneficent  telegraph  whose  agency  had  both 
communicated  the  news  of  distress  and  quickened  to  sensitive- 
ness the  hearts  of  its  recipients. 


SYMPATHY   AND   BELIEF.  411 

To  mention  a  few  instances  of  generosity: 

At  Milwaukee  the  news  of  the  conflagration  was  published 
in  the  morning  papers,  and  by  nine  o'clock  the  whole  popula- 
tion was  on  the  street  discussing  the  event  excitedly,  and  wait- 
ing for  the  extras  which  appeared  at  short  intervals  througlu  ut 
the  day  from  the  newspaper  offices.  Three  fire-engines  were 
dispatched  by  a  special  train,  which  did  excellent  service  in 
Chicago,  saving,  it  is  believed,  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
West  Division  from  destruction.  Milwaukee  itself  was  greatly 
threatened,  by  reason  of  the  drought  and  neighboring  prairie- 
fires,  and  the  Mayor  issued  a  proclamation  directing  the  citizens 
how  to  proceed  as  a  precaution  against  fire.  The  Chamber  of 
Commerce  took  action  at  noon,  which  resulted  in  the  filling 
of  two  cars  with  cooked  provisions.  These  went  by  the  even- 
ing passenger-train,  and  arrived  in  Chicago  at  half-past  seven,  in 
charge  of  Messrs.  Larkin  and  Ilsley,  who  immediately  proceeded 
to  distribute  the  food  to  the  hungry  victims  of  the  fire.  Further 
contributions  of  money,  food,  and  other  necessaries  followed. 

St.  Louis  proved  herself  a  most  generous  neighbor.  Mayor 
Mason,  of  Chicago,  appealed  to  her  during  Monday  for  aid,  and 
Mayor  Brown,  of  St.  Louis,  addressed  himself  most  bravely  to 
the  duty  of  supplying  it.  He  called  meetings,  dispatched  fire- 
engines,  and  proved  himself  a  host  in  the  emergency.  Two 
immense  meetings  were  held,  at  which  the  Mayor  presided,  and 
at  the  first  one  (at  noon)  $70,000  were  subscribed,  and  commit- 
tees appointed  to  canvass  every  trade,  interest,  and  profession 
in  the  city  for  subscriptions.  By  five  o'clock  a  relief-train  was 
on  the  track,  ready  to  move,  and  at  the  evening  meeting  it  was 
announced  that  eighty  tons  more  of  provisions  were  ready  to 
go.  Large  quantities  of  bedding  and  other  articles  were  also 
made  up  and  dispatched,  with  the  provisions,  during  the  night. 


412  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

With  the  first  train  a  committee  was  sent,  of  which  Hon.  Henry 
T.  Blow,  late  Minister  to  Brazil,  was  the  moving  spirit.  This 
committee  reported  at  Chicago  at  daylight  on  Tuesday  morning, 
and  became  the  nucleus  of  several  such  committees,  which  staid 
in  Chicago  a  week,  and  rendered  valuable  assistance,  especially 
during  the  few  days  before  the  authorities  of  the  smitten  and 
shattered  city  had  fully  organized  the  work  of  relief.  The  St. 
Louis  Common  Council  appropriated  $50,000  to  the  relief-fund", 
the  County  Court  a  like  sum,  and  contributions  from  other 
bodies  and  private  citizens  swelled  the  sum  to  over  §500,000, 
or  about  §1.70  from  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  city! 

Nor  was  Cincinnati  less  prompt  and  generous.  Even  as  early 
as  two  o'clock  on  Monday  morning,  before  even  the  wave  of 
fire  had  passed  the  Chicago  Court-house,  and  the  half  of  the 
destruction  had  not  been  accomplished — much  less  told  in  Cin- 
cinnati— the  editor  of  the  Commercial  was  penning  this  para- 
graph, which  went  out  as  a  double-leaded  leader  in  the  morn- 
ing's issue : 

"  A  TERRIBLE  CALAMITY. — The  news  from  Chicago  is  most 
distressing.  The  most  awful  fire  in  the  history  of  the  city,  and 
one  of  the  most  destructive  that  ever  took  ph??  in  the  country, 
is,  as  we  write,  raging,  and  our  dispatches  indicate  a  degree  of 
alarm  almost  amounting  to  despair.  It  is  impossible  to  con- 
jecture the  extent  of  the  calamity.  Certainly  it  is  appalling. 
Action  should  be  taken  here  without  a  day's  delay  to  express 
our  profound  sympathy,  and  to  render  substantial  assistance  to 
the  multitude  of  houseless  people.  The  latest  intelligence  is  ab- 
solutely portentious.  It  seems  possible  that  the  whole  city  may 
be  laid  desolate." 

This  fell  upon  the  popular  mind  like  good  seed  timely  sown. 
Of  the  scenes  enacted  and  deeds  done  in  Cincinnati  during  that 


SYMPATHY  ASD   BELIEF.  413 

and  the  following  days,  Mr.  Edward  Betty,  of  the  Commercial, 
furnishes  for  these  pages  the  following  account : 

"The  reception  of  the  news  of  the  great  conflagration  in 
this  city  produced  the  most  profound  sensation.  The  effect 
upon  the  public  mind  was  such  as  the  news  of  defeat  produced 
during  the  war  for  the  Union.  Business  was  suspended  by 
common  consent,  and  the  citizens  flocked  to  the  newspaper 
offices  in  crowds  that  completely  blockaded  the  sidewalks,  and 
required  the  interference  of  the  police  to  render  pedestrianism 
possible.  The  suspension  of  telegraphic  communication  only 
served  to  heighten  the  excitement  and  make  more  unendurable 
the  terrible  suspense,  for  such  was  the  public  sense  of  the 
calamity  that  every  individual  felt  that  in  some  manner  he  was 
a  sufferer. 

"  This  was  the  condition  all  of  Monday  and  Monday  night, 
October  the  9th,  but  in  the  midst  of  the  wild  whirl,  sadness, 
and  depression,  the  sympathies  of  humanity  found  expression, 
and  during  the  earlier  hours  of  the  day  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce became  the  theater  for  such  a  spontaneous  action,  for  the 
relief  of  the  burning  city,  as  never  was  witnessed  before  in  Cin- 
cinnati. 

"  Governor  Hayes  arrived  by  the  earliest  train  from  Colum- 
bus, and  took  an  active  part  in  putting  in  motion  the  sympa- 
thetic movement.  The  Chamber  subscribed  five  thousand 
dollars,  and  adopted  a  resolution  requesting  the  City  Council 
to  appropriate  a  hundred  thousand. 

"  The  Mayor  called  for  private  subscriptions,  and  these  com- 
menced to  tumble  in  by  the  thousand,  five,  three,  and  two  hun- 
dred dollars,  with  the  money  paid  down  rapidly  as  the  secretary 
could  record  the  names.  Before  the  close  of  the  day  the  private 
subscriptions  amounted  to  sixty  thousand  dollars. 


414  CHICAGO   AND   TUB   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

,  -"In  the  meantime  a  special  meeting  of  the  City  Council  was 
convened  by  the  Mayor.  Nearly  every  member  of  the  body 
was  in  his  seat,  and  a  well-worded  resolution  was  adopted, 
appropriating  $100,000  for  the  relief  of  Chicago.  The  Mayor 
announced  that  he  had  already  dispatched  by  special  train 
three  first-class  steam  fire-engines,  and  four  thousand  feet  of 
hose.  Church  societies  under  the  direction  of  noble  Christian 
women,  were  also  called  into  action,  and  provisions  and  cloth- 
ing were  prepared  in  immense  quantities.  Before  the  day  closed 
a  committee  with  a  commissary  train,  loaded  with  provisions 
and  blankets,  was  sent  off  on  the  wings  of  steam  to  succor  the 
houseless  people  of  the  smitten  city,  which  in  the  hour  of  her 
calamity  forgot  to  call  upon  her  bounteous  sister  on  the  banks 
of  'the  beautiful  river/  but  left  her  to/  proffer  the  helping 
hand,  and  thereby  merit  the  love  of  Him  who  'loveth  the 
cheerful  giver/ 

"  But  the  aid  movement  did  not  cease  here.  It  was  renewed 
next  day.  By  the  first  trains  of  Tuesday  the  10th  October, 
more  provisions,  blankets,  and  clothing  werq  forwarded,  and 
one  of  them  conveyed  an  outfit  of  type  sent  to  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  by  M.  Halstead,  Esq.,  ecUtor  of  the  Cincinnati  Com- 
mercial, in  a  spirit  of  noble  liberality,  characteristic  of  the  man. 
The  Masonic  and  Odd  Fellows  bodies,  the  Medical  Colleges,  and 
eleemosynary  institutions  of  the  city,  all  proffered  substantial 
aid,  and  made  suitable  provision  for  the  sufferers  who  should 
seek  a  temporary  asylum  among  them.  And,  indeed,  through- 
out the  remainder  of  the  week,  the  movement  was  kept  up. 
On  Sunday  the  entire  Protestant  pulpit  called  aloud  upon  the 
people  for  the  exercise  of  the  most  liberal  beneficence,  and  in 
one  week  from  the  day  the  terrible  misfortune  fell  upon  Chi- 
cago, the  relief  fund  had  reached  two  hundred  and  ten  thousand 


SYMPATHY  AND   RELIEF.  415 

dollars.  Besides  this  there  were  liberal  donations  of  furniture, 
hollow-ware,  bedding,  clothing,  and  dry  goods  for  domestic 
use.  The  list  of  these  is  interminable.  In  brief,  every  hand 
gave,  from  the  millionaire  to  the  little  child  in  the  lowest 
grade  of  the  common  schools.  Every  body  seemed  to  realize 
the  blessedness  of  giving,  nor  is  the  stream  yet  dry.  Some  of 
the  benevolent  institutions  are  making  daily  provision  for  the 
unfortunates  that  may  come  this  way,  and  it  is  quite  safe  to  say 
that  the  call  of  a  Chicago  sufferer  will  meet  with  a  generous 

response  for  many  a  day  to  come. 

"EDWABD  BETTY. 

"CINCINNATI,  Nov.  3, 1871." 

Mr.  Betty's  description  of  the  general  scene — the  eagerness 
for  news,  the  thronging  together  in  the  streets,  the  pall  of  sad- 
ness over  the  countenances  in  the  crowds,  and  the  spontaneous 
outpourings  of  material  aid — were  all  repeated  in  hundreds  of 
cities  and  thousands  of  villages  and  hamlets  throughout  this 
broad  land. 

At  New  York,  where,*bwing  to  the  more  eastern  longitude 
of  the  place,  the  news  did  not  arrive  in  season  to  work  its  full 
effect  through  the  morning  journals,  measures  of  relief  were 
not  organized  until  Tuesday  noon.  A  great  excitement  set  in, 
however,  early  on  Monday,  taking  effect  most  violently  in  that 
place  where  New  York  is  most  sensitive — her  Stock  Exchange. 
In  that  institution  a  panic  and  fever  prevailed,  rivaling  that 
of  the  memorable  Black  Friday.  Stocks  tumbled  under  the 
influence  of  the  news,  and  fortunes  melted  away  as  if  in  the 
full  blaze  of  the  fire  which  was  raging  a  thousand  miles  away. 
Many  refused  to  believe  the  accounts  of  the  disaster.  The  city 
was  fairly  crazy  for  news,  and  nothing  else  was  talked  of  that 
day  but  the  Chicago  calamity. 


416  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

New  York  was  more  vitally  interested  than  any  other  city  in 
the  fate  of  Chicago.  Her  merchants  had  all  given  extensive 
credits  there,  and  had  apparently  lost  not  only  their  accounts 
but  their  future  custom.  Her  capitalists  all  had  money  invested 
there.  Her  insurance  companies  all  had  heavy  risks  there,  and 
twenty  of  them  were  made  insolvent  by  the  event.  Indeed, 
whe  loss,  so  far  as  dollars  and  cents  go,  fell  quite  as  heavily 
upon  New  York  as  upon  Chicago.  Yet  was  New  York  the 
most  liberal  of  all  in  her  good  Samaritan  labors.  At  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  the  next  day  the  work  was  organized,  and  a 
committee,  headed  by  Mr.  A.  A.  Low,  submitted  an  eloquent 
and  practical  appeal  for  contributions.  These  were  received  at 
the  Chamber,  at  the  Gold  Exchange,  at  the  Stock  Exchange,  at 
the  Herald  office,  and  by  committees  who  passed  around  among 

the  merchants.    Within  thirty  hours'  time  nearly  half  a  million 

• 

dollars  had  been  raised,  and  within  a  fortnight  the  aggregate 
had  exceeded  two  millions  of  dollars,  or  more  than  two  dollars 
for  each  inhabitant  of  the  city.  A.  T.  Stewart  gave  $50,000, 
and  Robert  Bonner,  of  the  Ledger,  $10,000. 

In  Philadelphia,  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  raised  by 
the  citizens  within  an  hour,  and  subscriptions  were  immediately 
set  on  foot  wfnch  realized  an  aggregate  of  about  half  a  million 
dollars  within  ten  days. 

Boston  rallied  in  force  on  Tuesday  evening  at  her  glorious 
old  Faneuil  Hall,  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  which  now  proved  a 
cradle  of  charity  as  well.  Senators  Sumner  and  Wilson,  the 
Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  and  other  distinguished  orators, 
made  eloquent  speeches,  and  the  old  "cradle"  resounded  with 
the  applause  of  the  multitude  whenever  the  speakers  touched 
with  emphasis  upon  the  future  greatness  of  Chicago,  or  the  im- 
portance of  prompt  aid.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hale  himself  sketches 


SYMPATHY   AND   RELIEF.  417 

the  scene  at  Faneuil  Hall  thus,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chicago  Trib- 
une: "  Few  men  have  seen  more  remarkable  public  meetings  in 
Faneuil  Hall  than  I  have,  as  a  school-boy,  as  a  reporter  for  the 
press,  and  as  a  citizen  generally.  I  have,  therefore,  the  right 
/to  say  that,  within  this  generation,  there  has  been  no  public 
meeting  which  could  so  speak  for  the  best  life  of  Boston  as  the 
assembly  which  met  almost  at  a  moment's  warning,  in  the  midst 
of  our  agony  at  our  first  news  from  you.  It  was  at  noon  Tues- 
day. There  was  none  of  the  false  grandeur  of  a  packed  plat- 
form ;  nobody  had  been  invited,  except,  perhaps,  one  or  two  of 
the  speakers;  and  the  only  call  for  the. meeting  had  been  the 
published  request  that  every  one  would  come  to  Faueuil  Hall. 
That  is  our  Boston  way  in  a  crisis.  We  fall  back  on  the  in- 
stincts of  its  pure  democracy.  Well,  I  think  I  have  never  seen 
such  an  assembly  of  men  together.  The  floor  was  crowded  from 
floor  to  ceiling — crowded,  you  remember,  by  people  standing; 
for  the  characteristic  of  a  true  Faneuil-hall  meeting  is,  that  no 
one  sits  down.  It  means  work.  I  say  no  one.  But  the  re- 
porters were  sitting,  and  I  was  'sitting  among  them.  As  I 
looked  down  upon  that l  sea  of  upturned  faces ' — to  repeat  the 
words  I  heard  Mr.  Webster  use  in  that  place  long  ago — the  four 
men  I  recognized  first  in  the  dense  throng  before  me  were, 
Franklin  Haven,  President  of  the  largest  bank  in  .Boston; 
Judge  Thomas,  late  of  our  Supreme  Bench,  whom  we  count 
our  first  jurist;  Henry  Wilson,  of  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  your  old  friend,  William  B.  Wright,  the  minister  of  the 
largest  Protestant  church  in  Boston.  Afterward,  of  course,  I 
recognized  hundreds  of  other  men  whom  I  knew;  but  when, 
at  the  moment  of  my  arrival,  I  saw  these  four  representative 
men  standing  in  the  dense  throng  in  front  of  the  platform,  I 
could  not  but  think  that  little  picture  was  in  itself  an  illustra- 


418  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 


i 


tion  of  the  true  town-meeting."  The  depth  of  the  interest  felt 
in  Boston  concerning  the  calamity  of  Chicago  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  we  find  in  the  Transcript,  of  the  17th,  276 
items  of  intelligence  bearing  upon  the  subject.  It  is  also  worth 
while  to  add  ,that  fully  a  third  of  them  are  false,  like  many 
others  of  the  statements  published  in  the  out-of-Chicago  press 
right  after  the  fire.  In  Boston  the  work  of  securing  aid  for  the 
sufferers  was  carefully  divided  up,  and  more  than  half  a  million 
dollars  were  obtained  within  a  fortnight. 

Pittsburgh  and  Louisville  made  noble  contributions,  each 
about  $150,000  in  cash,  and  many  car-loads  of  clothing  and 
other  articles.  In  Pittsburgh,  on  'Change,  the  members  and 
citizens  pulled  off  their  own  coats  and  threw  them  into  the 
boxes,  so  enthusiastic  was  the  feeling  for  giving.  Detroit 
raised  $35,000  at  a  public  meeting  on  Monday.  Cleveland, 
four  hundred  miles  east  of  us,  sent  on  twenty-three  car-loads 
of  food  and  clothing  within  twenty-four  hours  after  receiving 
the  news  of  our  disaster.  Cairo,  nearly  as  far  to  the  south- 
ward, had  two  car-loads  of  provisions  started  toward  Chicago 
at  eleven  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.  Indianapolis  raised 
$8,000  at  once,  and  sent  it,  with  two  well-manned  steam  fire- 
engines  by  an  extra  train,  and  on  Monday  evening  her  Council 
appropriated  $20,000.  Those  gifts  were  followed  up  for  days 
by  others  from  the  less  impulsive  citizens.  By  Wednesday 
evening,  the  second  day  after  the  fire,  Brooklyn  had  subscribed 
$112,000  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers;  Buffalo,  $100,000; 
Rochester,  $70,500;  Baltimore,  $35,000;  Providence,  $21,000; 
Portland  (mindful  of  Chicago's  generosity  toward  her  in  her 
own  hour  of  need),  $11,000;  Salem  and  Lynn,  $50,000  each; 
Utica,  $20,000;  and  other  American  cities  an  aggregate  of 
about  $2,000,000  in  cash ;  besides  which,  and  the  contributions 


SYMPATHY   AND   BELIEF.  419 

of  goods  already  referred  to,  must  be  mentioned  the  forces  of 
policemen  and  militia,  and  some  twenty-five  steam  fire-eugines, 
sent  from  New  York,  Cincinnati,  Pittsburgh,  Detroit,  St.  Louis, 
Indianapolis,  Dayton,  Milwaukee,  and  Racine,  and  coming  like 
"  friends  in  need,  friends  indeed." 

The  societies  and  orders — Masons,  Odd  Fellows,  Knights  of 
Pythias,  etc.,  and  the  various  trades  unions — contributed  to 
their  own  brethren,  through  their  own  channels,  and  relieved 
much  distress  which  probably  would  not  have  been  reached 
through  the  more  public  methods. 

Excepting  for  the  maintenance  of  the  integrity  of  the  Union, 
the  people  of  America  have  never  voluntarily  taxed  themselves 
so  heavily  in  any  behalf,  nor  given  so  cheerfully  and  spon- 
taneously what  they  did  give.  And  never,  since  the  thrilling 
events  which  crowded  the  last  two  weeks  of  the  war  for  the 
Union,  have  the  American  people  been  so  agitated  and  ab- 
sorbed by  any  event,  of  whatever  nature. 

Nor  was  the  excitement,  nor  were  the  blessed  benefactions 
confined  to  this  continent.  The  news  of  the  disaster  shocked 
Europe  as  well,  and  formed  the  only  topic  in  the  clubs  and  the 
exchanges  of  London,  Hamburg,  Paris,  Berlin,  and  all  Euro- 
pean capitals.  At  London  meetings  of  private  citizens,  espe- 
cially of  Americans  there  sojourning,  were  held  at  once,  and  sub- 
scriptions opened  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute.  The  Lord  Mayor 
of  London  went  so  far  as  to  summon  his  Aldermen  together  with- 
out their  customary  period  of  notice — something  which  had  not, 
probably,  been  done  in  years — for  the  purpose  of  inaugurating 
officially  a  movement  for  relief.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Council 
sympathetic  speeches  were  made  and  a  thousand  guineas  voted; 
after  which  books  were  kept  open  at  the  Mansion  House  of  the 
Lord  Mayor,  and  something  over  $200,000  subscribed.  Similar 


420  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

movements  were  inaugurated  at  Liverpool,  at  Manchester,  at 
Birmingham,  at  Bradford,  at  Dublin,  at  Wolverhampton,  at 
Southampton,  at  Edinburgh,  at  Newcastle,  and  a  hundred 
othe»  towns  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  at  Vienna,  Berlin, 
Hamburg,  Paris,  and  other  continental  cities.  The  Queen  of 
England  and  Empress  of  Germany  joined  heartily  in  the  cause; 
and  it  was  announced  as  an  item  of  importance  (as  it  doubtless 
is  in  England)  that  Queen  Victoria  reads  every  line  which  ap- 
pears in  the  newspapers  on  the  subject.  If  so,  she  had  plenty 
of  reading,  for  the  London  journals  had  telegraphed  to  them 
from  Queenstown,  where  the  vessels  from  America  were 
boarded,  whole  broadsides  of  American  papers  having  a  bear- 
ing upon  the  all-important  topic. 

Thus  all  the  civilized  world  united  in  one  grand  work  of 
generous  good-will.  Thus  the  sweet  exhalations  from  a  hundred 
million  true  souls  came  down  in  a  blessed  rain  of  charity,  to 
soften  the  stern  soil  of  our  adverstty,  and  swell  the  bud  of  hope 
and  gratitude.  Thus  civilization  proved  that  its  beauty  was 
not  of  the  surface  merely,  but  deep  and  constant  as  the  Divine 
love  from  whence  it  springs! 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

ADMINISTRATION   OF   RELIEF. 

Gathering  in  the  homeless — Scenes  in  the  churches — Caring  for  the  sick—- 
The "Relief  and  Aid  Society" — Plan  of  its  work — History  of  its 
operations — Board  and  lodging  for  60,000 — 11,000  houses  built  and 
furnished  for  $110  each  in  two  months. 

TTOW  was  the  world's  munificence  applied?  How  was  all 
-L-L  this  relief  administered?  Did  human  nature,  which  had 
approved  itself  so  nobly  in  giving,  also  stand  the  strain,  both 
of  honesty  and  of  tact,  and  dole  out  the  precious  trust  to  the 
best  advantage? 

The  fate  of  the  city  was  known  at  daylight  on  Monday 
morning,  the  9th ;  but  at  that  hour,  and  indeed  until  past  noon 
of  that  day,  the  conflagration  was  still  raging,  and  threatening, 
we  may  say,  all  the  remaining  portion  of  the  city,  including 
the  most  valuable  residence  portion  on  the  avenues  near  the 
lake,  which  it  was  approaching  by  a  lateral  movement  nearly 
at  right  angles  with  the  wind.  The  Mayor,  who  had  been  on 
duty  at  the  Court-house  until  that  edifice  began  to  tumble  about 
his  ears,  was  fighting  the  fire  near  his  own  premises,  on  Wabash 
Avenue.  About  noon  Mr.  Mason  was  importuned  by  Alder- 
man Holden,  President  of  the  Common  Council,  and  a  resident 

of  the  West  Division,  to  cmne  over  and  do  something  in  his 

(421) 


422  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

official  capacity  toward  reassuring  the  community  and  securing 
shelter  for  the  houseless  victims  of  the  fire. 

In  compliance  with  this  request,  the  Mayor  repaired,  at  about 
two  o'clock,  to  the  First  Congregational  Church,  on  West 
Washington  Street,  of  which  Mr.  Holden  had  taken  possession 
as  the  headquarters  of  the  City  Government.  Mr.  Holden  had 
summoned  also  Commissioner  Brown  of  the  Board  of  Police, 
and  one  or  two  Aldermen,  the  City  Clerk,  Mr.  Hotchkiss,  and 
one  or  two  prominent  citizens.  Together  they  drew  up  a  proc- 
lamation of  assurance,  as  recorded  in  a  previous  chapter,  and 
formed  a  relief  committee,  consisting  of  Orrin  E.  Moore,  Prest., 
C.  C.  P.  Holden,  Treat.,  C.  T.  Hotchkiss,  Secy.,  John  Buehler, 
Aid.  Devine,  John  Herting,  Aid.  McAvoy,  and  N.  K.  Fair- 
banks. This  Committee,  in  anticipation  of  any  funds,  secured 
teams,  which  commenced  to  gather  in  the  sick  and  wounded. 
For  the  accommodation  of  these,  and  of  such  others  as  came 
in,  the  churches  were  all  thrown  open,  some  of  their  own  mo- 
tion, some  by  order  of  the  Relief  Committee.  Orders  were 
given  to  all  the  bakers  left  in  the  city  to  run  their  ovens  to 
their  full  capacity  in  making  bread  for  the  hungry.  That  night 
one  carload  of  food  came  in  from  Milwaukee  and  was  dis- 
tributed to  such  as  called  for  it.  There  w^p  also  much  food 
carried  out  upon  the  prairies  and  given  to  the  refugees  there 
by  the  benevolent  ladies  of  the  West  Division.  But  water 
was  the  greatest  desideratum  in  this  day,  and  all,  housed 
and  unhoused,  suffered  alike  for  lack  of  facilities  for  pro- 
curing it. 

The  vigorous  work  of  relief  did  not  fairly  commence  until 
Tuesday  morning.  Early  on  that  morning  the  committees 
from  abroad  began  to  come  in,  bearing  their  offerings — among 
them  the  committee  from  St.  Louis,  headed  by  Mr.  Blow;  the 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   RELIEF.  423 

committee  from  Cincinnati,  headed  by  Mr.  Goshorn,  and  a 
committee  from  Louisville,  headed  by  Wm.  M.  Morris,  came 
later  in  the  day.  There  was  now  plenty  of  food  (probably  some 
fifty  carloads  had  arrived  on  Tuesday  morning),  and  supplies  of 
clothing  were  coming  in  rapidly.  The  task  was  to  reach  the 
sufferers  with  it,  or  to  bring  them  to  points  where  aid  could  be 
conveniently  distributed.  For  this  purpose,  teams  were  sent 
out  to  bring  the  weak  and  infirm  into  the  city,  and  gather  them 
into  the  churches.  To  give  them  beds,  the  seats  were  stripped 
/  of  their  cushions,  and  mattresses  were  brought  in  from  the 
houses  of  the  citizens.  Five  hundred  cots  sent  from'  the 
Planters'  House,  St.  Louis,  and  a  quantity  of  blankets  from 
the  army  stores,  were  found  of  great  value  now. 

The  women  of  the  city  came  nobly  to  the  rescue.  Their  first 
impulse,  on  learning  of  the  state  of  suffering  of  thousands  on 
the  prairie,  was  to  snatch  up  all  the  food  they  had,  and  all  the 
clothing,  except  immediate  wear,  and  hurry  with  them  to  the 
sufferers.  Stories  of  starvation  were  rife,  and  were  generally 
credited — the  hearers  forgetting,  in  their  warm  impulse  to  suc- 
cor, that  people  could  not  starve  in  twenty-four  hour's  time, 
and  would  not,  when  provisions  were  so  near  at  hand.  There 
was  really  less  suffering  from  exposure  and  hunger  than  the 
world  was  left  to  suppose  from  the  news  which  went  out  dur- 
ing the  first  few  days  after  the  fire.  One  of  the  angels  of 
mercy  already  referred  to,  a  lady  of  the  West  Divison,  tells  an 
amusing  story  of  her  hopeless  attempt  to  find  some  one  who  was 
really  suffering  for  food  or  clothing  on  the  Tuesday  mentioned. 
She  drove  among  all  the  fugitives,  offering  food  and  clothing. 
The  former  was  a  drug  in  the  market,  and  for  the  latter  she 
could  not  find  suitable  customers  until  she  came  upon  an  elderly 
Irish  woman,  nearly  naked,  and  fairly  howling  with  distress. 


424  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

Delighted  at  the  opportunity  of  relieving  such  acute  suffering, 
the  lady  hastened  to  "rig  out"  the  poor  creature  with  a  com- 
plete set  of  apparel — clothing  which  was  by  no  means  of  the 
"cast-off"  variety.  She  was  rewarded  by  copious  tears  and 
invocations  of  blessings  from  the  "Holy  Mother/'  and  on  re- 
turning that  way  a  few  minutes  later,  she  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  her  beneficiary  stripped  again  and  in  the  same  state 
of  howling  misery  as  before,  the  good  clothing  having  been 
spirited  away  and  stored  up,  or  perphaps  sold  for  whisky! 

Such  cases  of  imposition  -as  this  were,  however,  the  excep- 
tions* and  the  fact  that  respectable  people  were  obliged  to  con- 
sort with  such  mendicants  and  imposters  as  these,  and  be 
subjected  to  the  same  questioning  as  they,  before  receiving  aid, 
only  illustrates  one  of  the  most  painful  phases  of  the  calamity. 

The  work  of  administering  succor  was  systematized  as  rap- 
idly as  possible,  and  by  Wednesday  shelter  had  been  provided 
for  all  who  were  houseless,  and  immense  depots  for  the  distri- 
bution of  food  and  clothing  were  in  operation  at  nearly  all  the 
churches.  The  cooking  and  serving  was  all  done  by  lady  vol- 
unteers, and  the  draft  was  a  very  severe  one  upon  the  women 
of  the  city,  who  not  only  served  as  the  almoners  of  the  bounty 
from  abroad,  but  carried  plentiful  stores  of  delicacies  from  their 
own  larders,  in  order  that  the  victims  of  the  fire  might  feel 
their  privation  as  little  as  possible.  The  building  of  commo- 
dious barracks  for  housing  the  homeless  was  commenced  at  once 
in  all  the  eligible  vacant  place's  in  the  city,  and  many  of  these 
were  already  occupied  by  Friday  night. 

By  this  time  the  work  of  relief  had  grown  so  in  magnitude 
(hat  it  began  to  suffer  seriously  for  want  of  organization.  A 
responsible  head  was  wanted  to  receive  and  account  for  the  mu- 
nificent offerings  of  the  outside  world,  and  a  skillful  executive 


BIGELOW  HOUSE. 


PACIFIC  HOTEL. 


NORTH-EAST  CORNER  CLARK   AND  RANDOLPH  STREETS. 


TREMONT  HOUSE. 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   RELIEF.  425 

agency  for  the  just  distribution  Q£  the  benefits,  so  that  no  real 
suffering  should  go  unrelieved,  and,  if  possible,  no  bounty  be 
wasted  upon  the  undeserving.  Fortunately,  there  was  already 
existing  in  Chicago,  a  Relief  and  Aid  Society  which  had,  for 
several  years,  made-  the  succor  of  the  needy  its  care,  and  had 
accomplished  a  vast  amount  of  good  in  the  relief  of  special  cases 
of  misfortune.  It  was  an  incorporated  institution,  jts  directory 
and  officers  consisted  of  men  of  the  very  best  character,  and 
it  had  a  system  of  seeking  out  cases  of  need  and  administering 
relief,  which  adapted  it  happily  to  the  work  now  before  it.  Its 
principal  officers  are,  Henry  W.  King,  President;  George  M. 
Pullman,  Treasurer ;  Wirt  Dexter,  Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee;  and  O.  C.  Gibbs,  Superintendent.*  The  President 
is  mainly  a  figure-head,  the  others  are  active;  and  Mr.  Gibfys 
is  the  only  professional  philanthropist  among  the  officers — that 
is,  who  receives  a  regular  salary  for  his  services  in  this  line. 
Mr.  Pullman  is  the  inventor  of  the  famous  palace-cars,  and  has 
become  a  millionaire  through  the  revenues  of  his  car  system. 
Mr.  Dexter  is  a  business  lawyer  of  extensive  practice  and  large 
means. 

To  this  Society  the  work  of  relief  was  intrusted  by  the 
Mayor  on  the  Friday  following  the  fire.  The  contributions  of 
cash  were  to  be  received  by  David  A.  Gage,  Esq.,  the  City 
Treasurer,  and  turned  over  by  him,  without  delay,  to  the  fund 
of  the  Relief  Society,  taking  the  Treasurer's  voucher  therefor. 
Other  contributions  were  to  be  receipted  for  and  reported  to 
the  Mayor. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  Relief  Society  strengthened  a 

weak  spot  or  two  in  its  officering  or  organization,  expanded 

somewhat  its  plan  of  operations,  and  addressed  itself  to  the 

mighty  task  before  it,  of  relieving  a  hundred   thousand  des- 

36 


426  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

titute  persons,  many  of  whom  were  too  sensitive,  or,  as  their 
neighbors  would  say,  "too  high  toned"  to  apply  for  aid;  to 
keep  out  many  thousand  undeserving  applicants  who  would 
fain  avail  themselves  of  an  opportunity  to  feed,  lodge,  and  dress 
at  the  public  expense  through  the  winter;  and  to  satisfy  a 
million  or  more  of  generous  donors,  who,  knowing  the  cor- 
ruption to  which  nearly  all  administrations  in  large  cities  have 
become  subject,  could  not  but  be  jealous  upon  the  matter  of 
the  distribution  of  their  bounty.  The  plan  upon  which  this 
was  to  be  accomplished  was  briefly  this :  A  treasurer  to  receive 
funds  and  account  for  them  (necessitating,  of  course,  a  very 
complete  set  of  books,  and  some  "  red  tape ") ;  an  executive 
committee,  to  p«ss  upon  all  questions  concerning  the  general 
policy  of  the  Society,  and  upon  all  bills  brought  against  the 
Society;  a  superintendent  to  portion  out  the  work  in  the  field, 
and  supervise  the  labors  of  the  district  superintendents;  seven 
committees  beside  the  executive  committee,  viz :  (1)  On  receiv- 
ing, storing,  and  issuing  supplies;  (2)  on  shelter;  (3)  on 
employment;  (4)  on  transportation;  (5)  on  reception  and 
correspondence;  (6)  on  distribution  of  food,  clothing,  and  fuel; 
and  (7)  on  sick,  sanitary,  and  hospital  measures.  The  plan 
further  embraced  a  series  of  districts,  each  with  a  local  super- 
intendent, a  main  depot,  sub-districts  and  sub-depots  for 
the  distribution  of  supplies ;  also  a  complete  system  of  house-to- 
house  visitation,  by  which  each  district  superintendent,  or  cer- 
tain of  his  aids,  should  know  each  recipient  of  bounty  by  his 
or  her  place  of  abode,  as  well  as  face.  The  method  of  distribu- 
tion was  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  quartermaster's 
department  in  the  army,  being  by  rations,  and  upon  requisitions; 
but  there  was,  of  course,  as  there  should  be,  much  less  "red 
tape,"  and  much  more  elasticity  of  operation.  A  fuller  state- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  RELIEF.  427 

ment  of  the  plan  will  be  found  in  Appendix  "  D,"  where  we 
print  the  report  of  Major-General  Meade  and  others,  a  com- 
mittee sent  hither  by  the  Philadelphia  contributors  to  examine 
into  the  workings  of  the  relief  business,  and  ascertain  whether 
their  bounty  was  being  faithfully  and  wisely  administered.  It 
will  be  perceived  that  these  gentlemen  are  very  positive  and  un- 
qualified in  their  praise  of  the  arrangements  for  relief;  a  ver- 
dict, which,  with  perhaps  advantages  for  observation  superior 
to  those  of  the  Philadelphia  committee,  we  can  conscientiously 
confirm.  « 

As  a  matter  of  «ourse,  the  temptations  to  exercise  favoritism 
in  the  distribution  of  benefits  is  very  great  in  a  community 
where  almost  every  person  can  rightfully  put  forward  some  ex- 
cuse for  receiving  gratuities,  and  where  a  general  prevalence  of 
hard  times  takes  away  in  many  cases  the  barrier  of  pride  which 
would  otherwise  deter  persons  from  accepting  relief  from  a  pub- 
lic source.  To  guard  against  this,  very  close  supervision  and 
very  trustworthy  officers  and  employe's  are  necessary ;  and, 
though  the  theory  of  the  system  requires  that  two  undeserving 
applicants  shall  be  served  rather  than  one  deserving  person  be 
neglected,  the  superintendent  found  himself  compelled,  in  order 
to  carry  all  his  pensioners  through  the  winter  upon  the  funds 
in  hand,  to  exercise  great  precautions  against  imposition,  and 
against  fostering  habits  of  dependence  and  indolence.  Accord- 
ingly, Mr.  Gibbs  found  it  necessary  to  issue,  on  the  24th  of 
October,  a  circular  to  the  employes  of  the  Society  under  his 
command,  of  which  the  following  is  the  body  : 

"  I  am  fully  justified  in  saying  that,  in  taking  into  account  the  amount 
of  relief  funds  and  stores  received  or  reported  to  date,  and  those  likely  to 
be  received  hereafter,  without  the  most  rigid  economy  in  their  disburse- 
ment, mid-winter  is  likely  to  find  us  with  our  treasury  bare,  with  outdoor 


428  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

labor  to  a  large  extent  necessarily  suspended,  and  with  a  city  full  of  poor 
looking  to  us  for  food  and  fuel.  You  will,  therefore,  see  the  pressing  ne- 
cessity that  not  a  single  dollar  be  appropriated  for  persons  able  to  provide 
for  themselves,  no  matter  how  strongly  their  claims  may  be  urged  by  them- 
selves or  others.  Every  carpenter  or  mason  can  now  earn  from  three  to 
four  dollars  per  day,  every  laborer  two  dollars,  every  half-grown  boy  one 
dollar,  every  woman  capable  of  doing  household  work  from  two  to  three 
dollars  per  week  and  her  board,  either  in  the  city  or  country.  Clerks  and 
persons  unaccustomed  to  outdoor  labor,  if  they  can  not  find  such  employ- 
ment as  they  have  been  accustomed  to,  must  take  such  as  is  offered,  or 
leave  the  city.  Any  man,  single  woman,  or  boy,  able  to  work  and  unem- 
ployed at  this  time,  is  so  from  choice,  and  not  from  necessity.  You  will, 
therefore,  at  once  commence  the  work  of  re-examination  of  the  cases  of 
all  persons  who  have  been  visited  and  recorded  upon  your  books,  and 
•will  give  no  aid  to  any  families  who  are  capable  of  earning  their  own 
support  if  fully  employed,  except  it  be  to  supply  some  needed  articles  of 
clothing,  bedding,  or  furniture,  which  their  earnings  will  not  enable  them  to 
procure  and  at  the  same  time  meet  their  ordinary  expenses  of  food  and 
fuel 

"No  aid  should  be  rendered  to  persons  possessed  of  property,  either 
personal  or  real,  from  which  they  might  by  reasonable  exertion  procure 
the  means  to  supply  their  wants,  nor  to  those  who  have  friends  able  to 
relieve  them. 

"  Our  aid  must  be  held  sacred  for  the  aged,  infirm,  widows,  and  orphans, 
and  to  supply  to  families  those  actual  necessaries  of  life,  which,  with  the 
best  exertions  on  their  part,  they  are  unable  to  procure  by  their  labor. 
You  will  entrust  this  work  of  re-examination  to  your  most  judicious  and 
intelligent  visitors,  who  will  act  conscientiously  and  fearlessly  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties. 

"This  circular  is  issued  with  the  full  approval  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, and  any  failure  on  the  part  of  any  employ^  of  the  Society  to 
conform  to  the  instructions  above  given  will  be  regarded  as  sufficient  cause 
for  his  instant  dismissal." 

On  the  same  day  the  treasurer  submitted  to  the  public  the 
following  report,  which  we  give  as  showing  not  only  the  mag- 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   RELIEF.  429 

nitude  of  the  work,  but  the  proportions  of  the  expenditures  for 
different  objects: 

Total  amount  cash  received  in  direct  remittances,  .  .  $  599,276  12 
Total  amount  for  which  drafts  have  been  made  and  sent 

forward  for  collection, 726,752  16 

Total  amount  for  which  drafts  have  been  drawn,  and  are  to 

be  forwarded  to-morrow, 160,957  78 


Aggregate  receipts, $1,486,986  06 

Disbursements  to  date, 34,449  80 


Balance  on  hand, $1,452,836  26 

Of  this  amount  there  is  on  deposits  in  banks  of  this  city,  649,208  10 

In  banks  of  New  York, 419,657  17 

In  banks  of  Boston, 128,462  84 

In  banks  of  Montreal, 2,500  00 

Total, $1,199,828  11 

Drafts  to  be  sent  on  for  collection, 160,957  78 

Cash  on  hand,  principally  checks, 92,050  37 

Total, $1,452,836  26 

The  estimated  requisitions  for  the  next  thirty  days  are  as 
follows: 

For  houses  and  barracks,  including  those  already  com- 
pleted,   $  850,000  00 

For  stoves  and  furniture,     .         .        .        .        .        .        .  150,000  00 

For  bedding, 80,000  00 

For  fuel,                                       , 100,000  00 

For  food, 750.000  00 

For  labor  and  teams, .  45,000  00 

Total, .        .        .        .   $1,975,000  00 

The  stock  of  clothing  on  hand  and  advised  of  as  being  on 
the  way,  is  supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  supply  the  demand  for 
the  next  thirty  days. 


430  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

In  the  last  days  of  October  some  scandal  was  raised  concern- 
ing the  disposition  of  certain  funds  during  the  provisional  ad- 
ministration of  the  so-called  Relief  Committee — a  self-consti- 
tuted body,  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  unquestionably 
honest  men,  but  still  having  no  responsible  or  tangible  or  prac- 
ticable organization.  One  of  the  members  of  that  committee, 
Mr.  Holden,  was  a  candidate  for  the  mayoralty,  and  the  news- 
papers, all  of  wliich  were  arrayed  against  him,  came  out  in 
articles  impugning  the  honesty  and  disinterestedness  of  his 
administration  as  custodian  of  the  relief  fund;  so  that,  although 
he  disproved  their  main  allegations,  and  though  he  was  then 
entirely  disconnected  from  the  relief  business,  the  stench  raised 
over  the  subject  served  undoubtedly  to  deter  a  few  contribu- 
tions which  had  been  raised  from  coming  to  Chicago;  but  the 
friends  of  the  sufferers  can  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that 
the  subscriptions  were  nearly  all  in  at  that  time,  and  that  com- 
paratively little  was  lost  in  this  way.  On  the  28th  of  October 
Mr.  Dexter  sent  out  telegrams  to  "  our  friends  throughout  the 
civilized  world,"  asking  complete  duplicate  reports  of  all  their 
gratuities,  with  the  obvious  purpose  of  tracing  up  any  miscar- 
riages or  misappropriations,  if  there  should  be  such  ;  but  with- 
out any  unpleasant  discoveries  so  far. 

On  the  7th  of  November,  six  weeks  after  the  fire,  and  five 
weeks  after  the  Society  had  fairly  commenced  business,  the  ex- 
ecutive committee  had  received  5859  applications  for  houses, 
and  had  granted  4299  of  these.  On  that  day  the  committee 
reported  further : 

"We  are  now  able  to  give  the  amount  received  to  this  date,  and  the  prob- 
able amount  of  the  entire  subscriptions,  with  approximate  accuracy.  We 
have  actually  received  $2,051,023.55.  Arrangements  have  been  made  by 
which  the  Society  draws  5  per  cent,  on  all  balances  in  bank.  So  far  aa 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   BELIEF.  431 

our  present  information  goes,  and  we  think  we  have  advices  of  all  sums 
subscribed,  the  entire  fund  will  vary  but  little  from  $3,500,000.  This  in- 
cludes the  funds  in  the  hands  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
amounting  to  about  $600,000,  and  the  balance  of  the  Boston  fund,  about 
$240,000,  both  amounting  to  about  $840,000,  not  yet  placed  to  the  credit 
of  this  Society,  but  which  may  undoubtedly  be  relied  upon  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  future.  As  to  our  disbursements,  we  can  only  say  that  we 
are  at  present  aiding  60,000  people  at  our  regular  distributing  points. 
Some  of  this  vast  number  we  relieve  in  part  only,  but  the  greater  portion 
to  the  extent  of  their  entire  support.  This  is  in  addition  to  the  work  of  the 
special  relief  committee  for  people  who  ought  not  to  be  sent  to  the  general 
distributing  points,  and  which  is  largely  increasing  upon  our  hands.  It  is 
also  in  addition  to  the  expenditures  of  the  committee  on  existing  charita- 
ble institutions. 

"  The  great  matter  pressing  upon  the  committee  is  shelter  for  the  com- 
ing winter.  We  may  feed  people  during  the  mild  weather,  but  where  and 
how  they  are  to  be  housed — permanently  housed — we  regard  as  a  serious 
question.  To  this  end  we  have  been  aiding  those  burned  out  to  replace 
small  but  comfortable  houses  upon  their  own  or  upon  leased  lots,  where 
they  can  live,  not  only  this  winter,  but  next  summer,  and  be  ready  to  work 
in  rebuilding  the  city.  Of  these  houses — which  are  really  very  comforta- 
ble, being  16  by  25  feet,  with  two  rooms,  one  12  by  16  feet,  and  one  8  by 
16  feet,  with  a  planed  and  matched  floor,  panel  doors,  and  good  windows — 
we  have  already  furnished  over  4000,  making  permanent  houses,  allowing 
five  to  a  family,  for  20,000  people,  and  with  the  7000  houses  which  we 
expect  to  build,  shall  have  rooms  for  35,000  people.  These  houses  and 
some  barracks,  in  both  of  which  is  a  moderate  outfit  of  furniture,  such  as 
stoves,  mattresses,  and  a  little  crockery,  will  consume,  say  $1,250,000,  leav- 
ing $2,250,000  with  which  to  meet  all  tho  demands  for  food,  fuel,  clothing 
and  general  expenses,  from  the  13th  of  October  last — when  we  took  the 
work — until  the  completion  of  the  same,  which  can  not  possibly  end  with 
the  present  winter. 

"The  committee  need  hardly  say,  that  if  the  demand  should  continue  as 
great  as  the  present,  the  fund  would  be  exhausted  by  mid-winter,  but  we 
hope  to  cut  this  down  very  largely  as  soon  as  we  can  get  people  into 
houses,  so  that  they  can  leave  their  families  and  find  work.  Indeed,  this 


432  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

is  being  done  already.  Within  a  few  days  we  shall  arrive  at  the  exact 
daily  expense  of  food  and  fuel  rations;  but  the  demand,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, is  a  fluctuating  one.  If  the  weather  is  good  and  men  can  work, 
it  falls  off;  if  cold  and  stormy,  it  at  once  increases  at  a  fearful  rate." 

In  addition  to  the  labors  of  the  Relief  Society,  much  was 
done  toward  succoring  the  distressed  by  benevolent  and  co-ope- 
rative societies,  and  by  individual  munificence;  and  among  the 
most  wholesome  of  the  agencies  called  into  operation  was  the 
Ladies  Industrial  Aid  Society,  formed  for  the  purpose  of  fur- 
nishing remunerative  labor  to  those  women  and  girls  whose 
self-respect  prompted  them  to  earn  a  livelihood,  but  who  found 
themselves  deprived  of  opportunities  by  the  general  contraction 
of  business;  also  the  Ladies  Christian  Union,  which  labored 
for  the  same  praiseworthy  end. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  us  to  observe,  in  leaving  this  sub- 
ject, that  there  were  necessarily  many  cases  of  distress,  or  of 
privation  bordering  on  physical  distress,  and  including  a  great 
deal  of  mental  distress,  which  it  was  impossible  to  relieve.  A 
special  bureau,  organized  for  the  purpose  as  a  branch  of  the 
Relief  Society,  did  much  in  this  direction;  but  it  could  not  do 
all — that  was  simply  impossible.  Indeed,  for  those  many  cases 
of  misery  which  resulted  from  lost  station,  or  fallen  pride,  or 
blighted  ambition,  or  bereavement  of  kindred,  it  was  impossi- 
ble, even  if  the  constituted  authorities  had  the  whole  wealth  of 
London  at  their  command,  to  administer  relief. 

This  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of  grave  regret;  but  it  must  be 
added  that  a  good  deal  of  mawkish  sentiment  was  wasted  on 
the  cases  of  those  who  were  "  too  proud  to  beg,"  and  yet  not 
too  proud  to  accept  bounty  if  it  was  offered  them.  Such,  it  was 
argued,  must  be  sought  out  and  pressed  to  take  little  delicacies 
and  choice  tidbits  of  charity,  and  furnished  with  enough  of 


LASALLE  STREET  TUNNEL. 


MIUUIQAN  SOUTHERN  RAILROAD  DEPOT. 


CORNER  CLARK  AND   RANDOLPH  STREETS. 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   RELIEF.  433 

filthy  lucre  to  keep  them  through  the  winter  in  at  least  a  shabby 
genteel  manner,  as  if  they  were  the  heirs  of  the  world  and 
were  kept  on  a  rather  stingy  allowance  until  they  should  come 
into  their  inheritance.  Now  pride  is  a  quality,  or  faculty,  or 
habit,  quite  as  simple  to  regulate  as  any  other  faculty — for  in- 
stance, physical  appetite;  to  indulge  it  costs  money,  or  ought 
to.  If  a  person  values  his  pride  highly  enough  to  do  without 
money,  or  food,  he  can  indulge  it  at  that  expense  and  rejoice  in 
the  act.  If  his  appetite  for  food  or  for  gain  is  stronger  than 
his  pride,  he  sacrifices  the  latter,  and  rejoices  in  his  bargain  all 
the  same.  Pride  is  a  luxury,  and  should  be  paid  for  like  all 
other  luxuries.  The  man  who  can  keep  his  pride  through  ad- 
versity has  reason  to  felicitate  himself  upon  it;  but  he  has  no 
right  to  demand  that  his  pride  be. kept  up  for  him  at  the  public 
expense.  Receiving  charity  and  at  the  same  time  affecting  to 
despise  it,  is  the  meanest  kind  of  hypocrisy,  and  is  moreover  as 
foolish  as  the  scheme  of  the  chtld  who  thought  that  he  could  eat 
his  cake  and  have  it  too.  We  have  no  sincerer  tears  than  those 
which  flow  for  the  ambitious  young  Chicagoaus  who  found 
themselves  smitten  at  once  in  their  purse,  pride,  and  prospects, 
and  who  therefore  had  a  mental  and  moral  blight  added  to  the 
physical  privation  which  the  fire  brought  on  ;  but  such  was  the 
fate  of  many  who  bore  it  heroically ;  and  the  man  who  came 
out  of  the  fire  poor,  and  yet  never  asked  nor  received  gratuities 
during  all  the  trying  period  that  followed,  has  the  best  title  of 
all  to  be  proud  henceforth. 

37 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

HUMORS  OF  THE   FIRE. 

Enjoying  a  bonfire  of  one's  valuables  —  How  a  lap-dog  was  saved  —  Burning 
up  the  freedom  of  the  Negroes  —  "Billy,  propose  a  resolution"  —  The 
first  conundrum  of  the  new  era  —  The  calamitous  cow  —  No  confidence 
in  Chicago  as  a  ruin  —  The  pathetic  ballad  of  Eva  Boston,  etc. 


who  think  there  were  no  comical  or  humorous  ele- 
-•-  ments  about  so  vast  an  affair  as  the  Chicago  fire,  labor 
under  a  great  mistake.  There  were  many  such,  and,  far  from 
the  people  being  overwhelmed  by  the  shocking  events  of  the 
catastrophe,  the  reaction  of  the  mind  from  the  state  into  which 
it  would  be  thrown  by  that  scene  and  its  consequences,  rather 
heightened  the  appreciation  of  the  ridiculous.  This  is  not  a 
phenomenon  —  it  is  a  simple  and  very  natural  fact,  which  the 
reader  has  doubtless  had  occasion  to  observe  before  now,  that 
the  extremely  pathetic  and  the  ludicrous  often  blend  with  one 
another.  Such  was  the  case  with  a  gentleman  in  the  North 
Division,  who  tells  us,  between  his  convulsions  of  laughter, 
excited  by  the  recollection,  how,  on  the  night  of  the  principal 
fire,  having  found  his  own  house  on  the  verge  of  destruction, 
and  loaded  some  of  his  most  prized  keepsakes,  such  as  an  heir- 
loom easy  .chair,  etc.,  upon  a  wagon  which  his  man  drove,  and 
following  after  with  a  small  load  in  his  buggy,  he  was  thrown 
into  a  violent  fit  of  laughter  at  seeing  the  goods  upon  the  front 
(434) 


HUMORS   OF  TILE   FIRE.  435 

wagon  blazing  up  in  the  streets  before  his  eyes,  and  behind  the 
back  of  the  unsuspecting  driver.  The  gentleman  is  unable  to 
this  day  to  tell  what  there  was  funny  in  the  sight,  but  knows 
that  it  affected  him  ludicrously,  just  as  the  recollection  of  it  has 
ever  since. 

The  selections,  which  people  made  in  their  flight,  of  articles 
to  save,  was  almost  invariably  ludicrous,  or  at  least  remarkable. 
Women  for  the  most  part  took  pets,  as  canary  birds,  lap-dogs, 
etc.,  while  men  tried  to  save  valuables,  but  were  often  greatly 
confounded  to  find,  on  escaping  from  immediate  danger,  that 
they  had  brought  away  an  empty  cigar-box,  or  some  such  rub- 
bish, instead  of  their  title  deeds  or  private  ledger.  One  gen- 
tleman, to  our  knowledge,  rushed  up  stairs,  seized  a  box  of 
paper  collars  and  bore  it  away,  leaving  a  valuable  paid-up  life- 
insurance  policy  in  the  same  drawer;  and  it  is  credibly  related 
that  an  exquisite  young  man  was  seen  emerging  from  a"  board- 
ing house  on  Wabash  Avenue,  very  fastidiously  dressed,  and 
bearing  solemnly  in  his  hand  an  article  of  chamber  furniture 
with  which,  to  say  the  least,  he  would  not  have  been  seen  thus 
in  his  cooler  moments.  Equally  ludicrous  was  the  sight  of 
two  young  women— one  a  mother,  evidently,  escaping  in  a 
basket  carriage  to  the  west  side.  They  were  fashionably 
dressed,  aid  were  lashing  their  horse  to  the  top  of  his  speed. 
One  of  them  held,  clear  from  the  ground  with  great  difficulty, 
a  baby  carriage,  while  the  other  plied  the  whip.  A  gentleman 
meeting  them,  ejaculates,  "  Your  dog,  ma'am,"  bat  they  dash  on, 
unheeding.  The  object  of  the  gentleman's  solicitude — a  poodle 
of  diminutive  size — was  attached  to  the  axle  of  the  carriage 
and  bobbing  about  like  a  foot-ball.  He  had  been  fastened 
with  the  tenderest  care,  with  plenty  of  padding  about  his  neck, 
but  none,  unfortunately,  around  his  head,  which  was  beaten 


436  CHICAGO  AN*  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

nearly  to  a  jelly,  the  dog  being  very  dead.  But  the  ladies  were 
happy  in  the  fallacy  that  they  had  saved  their  precious  pet. 

A  curious  fact  (at  least  the  Southern  papers  tell  it  for  a 
fact),  was  the  notion  of  the  simpler  negroes  at  the  South,  that 
since  the  original  draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  of 
President  Lincoln  was  burned  up  in  the  fire,  they  must  all  be 
remanded  to  slavery!  The  New  Orleans  Picayune  tells  of  a 
lady  in  that  city  who  was  reading  to  her  servants  an  account 
of  the  Chicago  fire.  The  incident  of  the  burning  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  arrested  the  attention  of  one  old 
colored  woman,  a  slave  all  her  life,  who  viewed  the  proclama- 
tion much  as  the  Israelites  did  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
"What  dat!"  she  said,  "burned  up?"  "Yes,  aunty,  burned 
up."  "Den  what  gwine  come  of  us  again?"  "I  don  't  know; 
may  be  you  '11  be  slaves  as  before."  "  Den  dis  chile  gwiue  to 
die  right  now." 

It  is  related,  but  we  have  not  been  able  to  trace  the  story  to 
its  origin,  that  an  elderly  gentleman  from  Iowa,  hearing  of  the 
calamity,  hastened  immediately  to  Chicago  to  aid  his  son  and 
his  family — perhaps  snatch  them  from  their  burning  house. 
Hearing  at  one  of  the  stations  that  the  Water-works  had  given 
out,  he  purchased  a  cask,  filled  it  with  water,  and  brought  it 
along  with  great  care.  It  is  even  said  that  he  was  charged 
forty  dollars  by  an  expressman  for  carrying  it  to  his  son's  house 
on  the  west  side,  which  the  old  man  paid  willingly,  as  it  had 
not  yet  occurred  to  him  that  water  was  to  be  had  from  the  lake 
by  going  thither 

Some  newsboys  and  bootblacks  from  Chicago  sought  refuge 
in  New  York  right  after  the  fire.  Their  colleagues  of  that 
metropolis  were  anxious  to  do  something  hospitable  for  them, 
and  so  called  a  meeting  at  the  headquarters  of  their  guild  for 


HUMORS   OF  THE   FIRE.  437 

the  reception  of  the  afflicted  strangers.  One  of  the  leaders  of 
the  fraternity,  feeling  that  the  eyes  of  the  country  were  on  them, 
and  that  a  speech,  a  resolution,  or  something,  was  necessary  to 
redeem  the  occasion,  rose  to  the  emergency  and  to  his  feet,  and 
remarked,  impressively: 

"  Gentlemen :  You  know  about  the  Chicago  fire,  and  that 
these  gentlemen  (pointing  to  the  ten  Chicagoans)  are  sufferers. 
I  now  want  to  tell  'em  that  we  're  sorry  for  'em.  Our  subscrip- 
tion list  is  making  up,  and  I  heard  Mr.  O'Connor  say  'twill 
amount  to  §8.25,  which  they  will  get,  though  it 's  small,  and 
not  as  much  as  we  'd  like  to.  That's  all  I  have  to  say,  except 
that  if  these  gentlemen  stay  here  we  '11  post  'em." 

Another  boy.     "Billy,  propose  a  resolution." 

Billy.  "  I  move  that  we  're  awful  sorry  for  the  sufferings  of 
the  newsboys  and  blnck-a-boots  of  the  Chicago,  and  that  if  they 
stay  we  post  'em,  and  that  any  thing  we  can  do  we  will  do  to 
help  'em,  and  that  we're  sorry  it  ain't  more  than  $8.25." 

It  seems  that  being  "  posted,"  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  hap- 
piness with  the  newsboy,  and  that  the  intention  of  Billy's 
"  resolution  "  was,  therefore,  to  confer  the  highest  honor  upon 
the  visiting  gentlemen. 

Jokes  began  to  peep  out  in  the  columns  of  the  daily  papers 
after  a  few  days  had  elapsed  since  the  fire.  It  may  be  set  down 
(though,  perhaps,  upon  rather  insufficient  data)  that  after  a 
great  conflagration  conundrums  will  begin  to  appear  in  the 
local  press  after  twelve  days.  At  any  rate  the  Tribune,  of  the 
21st  of  October,  contained  this :  "  The  following  is,  we  believe, 
the  first  conundrum  which  was  raked  up  from  the  ashes  of  the 
great  Conflagration.  It  was  brought  into  the  local  room  of  the 
Tribune  by  a  suspicious-looking  character,  whose  hair  was  com- 
pletely singed  off,  and  whose  right  cheek  was  covered  with  flout 


438  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GKEAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

to  conceal  a  terrible  scar  left  by  the  fire.  He  did  not  wait  to 
claim  any  reward: 

"  Conundrum.  Whnt  is  the  difference  between  Theodore 
Thomas  and  the  Emperor  Xero? 

"  Answer.  The  one  fiddled  awayt  while  his  Rome  was  burn- 
ing, and  the  other  roamed  away  while  his  fiddles  were  burning." 

Various  squibs  soon  began  to  float,  having  reference  to  the 
dire  cow  of  De  Koven  Street;  and  what  purported  to  be  accu- 
rate likenesses  of  the  cow  with  crumpled  horn,  that  kicked  the 
lamp,  that  lit  the  straw,  that  fired  the  barn,  that  burned  Chi- 
cago up,  were  published  in  some  of  the  flash  newspapers.  The 
name  of  the  lecturers  who  presently  set  out  through  the  coun- 
try to  tell  what  they  knew  about  the  fire,  was  legion;  and  the 
happy  thought  struck  some  one,  that  the  notorious  bovine 
would  be  a  good  "  card,"  if  she  could  be  taken  around  and  ex- 
hibited along  with  somebody's  lecture. 

No  one  was  allowed  to  joke  about  the  fire  who  had  not  been 
completely  "cleaned  out"  himself.  One  of  the  monthly  jour- 
nals, which  had  fulfilled  this  condition,  had  this  squib,  apropos 
of  the  oft-repeated  remark  that  Chicago  will  rise  again  : 

"  We  are  constantly  assured  that  '  Chicago  will  rise  again.' 
We  hope  so,  and  are  inclined  to  believe  it,  .like  the  man  of 
whom  Hood  tells,  who,  being  run  over  by  a  heavy  wagon, 
looked  up  to  the  frightened  neighbors  who  had  gathered  about 
him,  and  asked  if  he  was  flat.  On  being  assured  that  he  was 
not,  he  remarked :  '  Oh,  well,  then  never  fear,  boys,  I'll  come 
round  again.'" 

The  impression  that  Chicago  would  "come  round  again" 
was  world-wide;  and  Punch,  of  London,  urged  Englishmen  to 
hurry  up  their  donations  faster  than  they  were  doing,  or  else 
Chicago  would  be  all  built  up  before  their  offerings  should 


HUMORS  OF  THE   FIRE.  439 

reach  her.     The  same  story  was  told  in  the  American  fashion, 
at  St.  Louis,  a  few  days  after  the  fire,  thus : 

"At  the  East  St.  Louis  depot,  on  last  Monday  evening,  con- 
siderable confusion  occurred  among  the  passengers  who  were 
boarding  the  passenger-train  for  Chicago,  by  an  individual, 
carpet-bag  in  hand,  and  very  much  excited,  shoving  and  push- 
ing the  crowd  in  .his  desperate  efforts  to  reach  the  cars.  He 
crowded  aside  and  elbowed  men,  women,  and  children,  making 
a  nuisance  of  himself  generally.  Finally  a  gentleman,  whose 
ribs  had  been  crushed  by  the  excited  man's  elbows,  and  his  tern 
per  ruffled  by  the  unceremonious  manner  in  which  he  haa  been 
hustled,  inquired  in  sharp  tones : 

"'What  the  devil  is  the  matter  with  you,  old  fellow?' 

"Man  in  a  Hurry.  'Must  get  that  train.' 

"  Other  Man.  l  Well,  there  is  plenty  of  time — the  train  does 
not  start  for  ten  minutes;  and,  besides,  there  are  several  other 
people  here  who  want  that  train.' 

"Man  in  a  Hurry.  'I  must  get  that  train,  and  that's  fixed. 
I'll  get  that  train  if  it  costs  me  my  life.' 

"  Other  Man.  '  What  in  thunder  is  the  necessity  of  your  reach- 
ing Chicago  by  this  train,  any  way?' 

"  Man  in  a  Hurry.  '  I  must  get  to  Chicago  to-morrow,  on 
this  train,  or  those  people  up  there  will  have  "built  up  the  whole 
town  again,  and  I  won't  see  them  ruins.' " 

The  -way  in  which  the  town  was  built  up  at  first,  was 
more  calculated  to  spoil  the  picturesqueness  of  the  old  Chicago 
than  to  inspire  admiration  for  the  new.  Among  the  first  build- 
ings to  "rise  phoenix-like  from  the  ashes,"  as  the  orators  were 
fond  of  saying,  in  those  days,  was  the  "  Burnt  District  Restau- 
rant," a  stately  edifice  of  rough  pine  boards,  one  story  high. 
"  Hammer  &  Smith's  Block  " — so  labelled — was  a  less  imposing 


440  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CON  FLAG  RATION. 

structure  about  7  x  9  in  dimensions,  built  at  an  expense  of 
perhaps  $40,  for  a  lawyer's  office. 

We  have  referred  to  the  effect  of  the  fire  in  bringing  out  the 
salient  points  of  human  nature,  just  as  heat  brings  out  the  stamp 
of  a  piece  of  coin.  The  weakness  of  Boston  human  nature,  as 
is  well  known,  is  for  sounding  the  praises  of  Boston  on  all 
occasions.  Some  did  .this  under  circumstances  which  were  to 
them  doubtless  pathetic,  while  to  the  unsympathizing  they  were 
simply  ludicrous.  A  young  pair  of  parents,  for  instance — victims 
of  the  fire — wrote  gushingly  to  a  Boston  newspaper  how  they 
owed  their  lives  to  Boston  on  that  occasion — to  a  pair  of  Boston 
blankets,  namely  (no  other  kind  would  have  saved  them) ;  also 
to  some  Boston  crackers,  a  bundle  of  baby  clothes  from  Boston, 
and  even  a  nursing  bottle  for  the  little  child,  who  was  straight- 
way christened  Eva  Boston  and  set  to  sucking  tb.e  precious 
memento.  Whether  the  poor  child  had  abstained  from  all 
nourishment  until  the  bottle  arrived  from  BOSTON,  we  do  not 
know,  but  are  left  to  infer  that  she  did.  A  syir  pathizing  poet 
in  Milwaukee  was  so  overcome  by  the  recital  oi  these  touching 
events  that  he  immediately  sat  down  and  dashed  ^ff  the  follow- 
ing lullaby  for  little  Eva  Boston — to  be  sung  to  a  flowing 
accompaniment  from  the  nursing  bottle : 

Air — Yankee  Doodle. 

Boston  Boston  Boston  Boston 

Boston  Boston  Boston 
Boston  Boston  Boston  Boston 

Boston  Boston  Boston. 

CHORUS. — Boston  Boston  Boston  Boston 

Boston  Boston  Boston 
Boston  Boston  Boston  Boston 
Boston  Boston  Boston. 


HUMORS   OF   THE   FIRE.  441 

A  newspaper  in  southern  Illinois  tells  the  following  good 
story  of  a  Mr.  Hudson,  a  railroad  superintendent  at  Macoupin. 
"Whether  it  is  or  is  not  true  in  all  its  particulars,  it  will  at  least 
remind  many  of  the  readers  of  this  history  of  their  own  expe- 
rience in  relieving  Chicago  : 

"Upon  hearing  of  the  burning  of  Chicago,  his  first  act  was  to 
telegraph  to  all  agents  to  transport  free,  all  provisions  for  Chi- 
cago, and  to  receive  such  articles  to  the  exclusion  of  freight. 
He  then  purchased  a  number  of  good  hams  and  sent  them  home 
with  a  request  to  his  wife  to  cook  them  as  soon  as  possible,  so 
they  might  be  sent  to  Chicago.  He  then  ordered  the  baker  to 
put  up  fifty  loaves  of  bread.  He  was  kept  busy  during  the  day 
until  five  o'clock.  Just  as  he  was  starting  for  home  the  baker 
informed  him  the  hundred  loaves  of  bread  were  ready. 

"But  I  only  ordered  fifty/'  said  Hudson. 

"  Mrs.  Hudson  also  ordered  fifty,"  said  the  baker. 

"  All  right,"  said  H.,  and  he  inwardly  blessed  his  wife  for 
the  generous  deed. 

"Arriving  at  home  he  found  his  little  boy,  dressed  in  a  fine 
cloth  suit,  carrying  in  wood.  He  told  him  that  would  not  do; 
he  must  change  his  clothes. 

"  But  mother  sent  all  my  clothes  to  Chicago,"  replied  the 
boy. 

"  Entering  the  house  he  found  his  wife,  clad  in  a  fine  silk  dress, 
superintending  the  cooking.  A  remark  in  regard  to  the  matter 
elicited  the  information  that  she  had  sent  her  other  dresses  to 
Chicago. 

"  The  matter  was  getting  serious.  He  sat  down  to  a  supper 
without  butter,  because  all  that  could  be  purchased  had  been 
sent  to  Chicago.  There  were  no  pickles — the  poor  souls  in 
Chicago  would  relish  them  so  much. 


442  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

"A  little  "put  out,"  but  not  a  bit  angry  or  disgusted,  he 
went  to  the  wardrobe  to  get  his  overcoat,  but  it  was  not  there. 
An  interrogatory  revealed  the  fact  that  it  fitted  in  the  box  real 
well,  and  he  needed  a  new  overcoat  any  way,  although  he  had 
paid  $50  For  the  one  in  question  only  a  few  days  before.  An 
examination  revealed  the  fact  that  all  the  rest  of  his  clothes 
fitted  the  box  real  nicely,  for  not  a  garment  did  he  possess 
except  those  he  had  on. 

"  While  he  admitted  the  generosity  of  his  wife,  he  thought  the 
matter  was  getting  entirely  too  personal,  and  turned  to  her 
with  the  characteristic  inquiry  : 

"  Do  you  think  we  can  stand  an  encore  on  that  Chicago 
fire?" 

There  is  neat  humor,  and,  at  the  same  'time  a  fine  touch  of 
true  feeling,  in  the  following  verses,  by  W.  H.  McElroy,  which 
were  printed  in  the  Albany  Journal  shortly  after  the  fire,  and 
with  which  we  conclude  this  chapter  : 

CHICAGO. 

We  used  to  chaff  you  in  other  days, 

Chicago, 
You  had  such  self-asserting  ways, 

Chicago. 

By  Jove,  but  you  cut  it  rather  fat, 
With  your  boastful  talk  of  this  and  that, 
As  if  America's  hub  was  at 

Chicago. 

We  Bohemian  boys  on  the  Eastern  press, 

Chicago, 
We  lied  about  you,  and  nothing  less ; 

Chicajio. 

'T  was  a  way  we  had— without  remorse 
To  manufacture  "another  divorce," 
And  locate  it  at — as  a  matter  of  course — 

Chicago. 


HUMORS   OF   THE   FIRE.  443 

The  star  of  empire  on  its  wny  West, 

Chicago, 
You  said,  concluded  that  it  was  best, 

Chicago, 

To  fix  itself  in  your  special  sky, 
Unmoved  by  further  claim  or  cry, 
And  you  hailed  the  star  as  "  good  for  high," 

Chicago. 

You  called  New  York — so  said,  at  least, 

Chicago, 
Called  it  "  Chicago  of  the  East." 

Chicago, 

Now,  was  n't  it  cutting  it  rather  fat, 
To  venture  on  such  a  speech  as  that, 
As  if  the  hub  was  certainly  at 

Chicago. 

But  we  loved  you  in  spite  of  your  many  airs, 

Chicago, 
If  it  was  n't  for  wheat  there  would  n't  be  tares, 

Chicago, 

And  so  as  we  heard  your  trumpets  blow, 
Loud  as  theirs  were  at  Jericho, 
We  said — "Well  one  thing,  she  isn't  slow" 

Chicago. 

And  when  of  your  terrible  trouble  we  learned, 

Chicago, 
How  your  fair  young  beauty  to  ashes  was  turned, 

Chicago, 

The  whole  land  rose  in  its  love  and  might, 
And  swore  it  would  see  you  through  your  plight, 
And — "  Draw  by  the  million  on  us  at  sight, 

Chicago." 

We  used  to  remark,  of  course  with  pity, 

Chicago, 
That  you  were  our  champion  wickedest  city, 

Chicago, 

And  yet,  just  now,  you  very  well  may 
Insist  with  reason  we  can't  gainsay, 
That  you  are  the  power  for  good  to-day, 

Chicago. 


444  CHICAGO  AND  THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

For  if  unto  Charity  it  is  given, 

Chicago, 
To  hide  no  end  of  sins  from  Heaven, 

Chicago, 

The  Recording  Angel  his  pen  may  take, 
And  blot  out  the  record  we  daily  make, 
And  write  on  the  margin  ''for  charity's  sake* 

At  Chicago, 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

GOOD   OUT  OF   EVIL. 

bonie  wholesome  effects  of  adversity — Business  faults  corrected — Aristoc- 
racy scotched  out — How  fire  purifies — How  individuals  may  attain 
improvement — How  the  -body  politic — How  humanity — The  sublimest 
spectacle  of  the  century. 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER,  whose  ready  sympathies 
doubtless  entitled  him  to  make  such  a  remark,  notwith- 
standing he  lost  nothing  by  the  fire,  declared  in  Plymouth  Church 
on  the  Sunday  following,  that  "  we  could  not  afford  to  do  with- 
out the  Chicago  fire" — that  it  was  revealing  to  us  such  cheering 
views  of  humanity  that  it  was  proving  a  blessing,  rather  than  a 
calamity.  Some  caviled  at  this  optimist  view  of  the  case,  and 
likened  Mr.  Beecher  to  the  oriental  prince,  who,  discovering  in 
the  ruins  of  his  father's  house,  which  the  fire  had  consumed,  the 
carcass  of  a  pig  most  exquisitely  roasted,  was  so  delighted  with 
the  discovery  that  he  kept  burning  down  his  subjects'  houses, 
in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  more  roast  pig. 

This  moral  salvage  from  the  ashes  of  the  great  calamity  we 
will  leave  out  of  the  consideration  for  the  present,  and  notice 
some  of  the  unquestioned  material  advantages  to  be  realized  as 
a  partial  recompense — perhaps  the  reader  will  say  a  complete 
recompense — for  the  manifold  evils  which  our  narration  has 

made  apparent     These  advantages  lie  mainly  in  the  correction 

(445) 


446  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT    CONFLAGRATION. 

of  besetting  faults,  which  it  is  fair  to  assume  would  not  have 
been  corrected  if  the  city  had  not  been  burned;  and  their  real- 
ization depends  in  some  measure  upon  the  willingness  of  the 
Chicagoans  to  receive  the  lessons  of  the  fire;  though  not 
wholly,  for  there  are  some  corrections  which  they  must  receive, 
whether  they  will  or  no. 

One  of  the  faults  of  Chicago  business,  and  one  which  had 
long  been  notorious,  was  the  artificial  inflation  of  the  real  estate 
market  constantly  going  on.  Hundreds  of  real  estate  brokers, 
agents,  and  speculators  (and  the  number  had  been  rapidly  in- 
creasing every  year),  were  striving  together  to  keep  prices 
advancing,  to  bring  into  market  as  city  property  thousands  of 
wild  acres,  miles  beyond  the  city  limits,  and  to  "turn  over" 
each  piece  of  property  as  many  times  a  year  as  possible.  To 
forward  these  plans,  rings  were  formed  and  public  appropria- 
tions secured  for  the  location  of  parks  or  public  buildings  con- 
tiguous to  the  property  of  the  speculators.  The  course  of  the 
market  was  not  left  for  natural  laws  to  regulate,  but  was  forced 
by  artificial  means  this  way  or  that;  and  much  capital,  and  still 
more  business  energy,  was  kept  by  this  means  out  of  channels 
of  enterprise  wherein  they  would  have  wrought  much  good  to 
the  community.  These  speculators  on  margins  and  operators 
in  what  was  called  "  boulevard  property,"  were,  like  large  num- 
bers of  the  purely  speculative  operators  on  'change,  pretty 
thoroughly  scotched  out  by  the  flames.  Whatever  may  be  said 
about  the  expansive  effect  of  heat  on  most  materials,  the  heat 
of  this  conflagration  had  a  decidedly  shriveling  effect  upon 
suburban  real  estate;  and  some  "beautiful  acre  property"  in 
the  far  suburbs  was  about  as  effectually  burned  up  as  any  mer- 
chandise in  the  center  of  the  town.  The  destruction  of  the 
records  of  the  county,  at  the  Court-house,  also  gave  the  fire 


GOOD   OUT   OF    EVIL.  447 

another  effect  which  few  will  lament,  viz:  to  wipe  out  the  evi- 
dences which  made  tax  titles  valid,  and  land  high  and  dry 
many  of  the  sharks  who  preyed  upon  the  delinquent  tax- 
payers. 

It  may  also,  probably,  be  scored  down  to  the  credit  of  the 
fire  that  it  checked  the  too  rapid  spread  of  the  city  in  all 
directions,  which  was  bound  to  result  in  great  sacrifices  of 
economy  in  time  and  money.  The  same  was  true  with  regard 
to  business,  which  was  scattering  broadly  over  the  city,  the 
warehouses  and  shops  of  scarcely  any  line  of  business  being 
within  convenient  distance  of  each  other.  This  made  the  trans- 
action of  business  more  expensive,  both  to  the  jobbers  and  to 
the  country  dealers  who  favored  them  with  their  trade. 

The  fire  is  expected  to  exercise  a  great  reforming  effect  upon 
the  character  of  the  building  done  in  Chicago  after  the  date  of 
its  occurrence.  The  very  inflammable  character  of  the  build- 
ings in  most  parts  of  the  city  has  been  already  adverted  to. 
But  even  in  the  quarter  which  has  been  called  "  well  built"  by 
strangers,  as  well  as  by  citizens,  there  was  altogether  too  much 
regard  paid  to  show,  and  too  little  to  utility.  Chicago,  though 
a  mere  stripling  of  a  city,  already  enjoyed  the  credit  of  having 
the  most  elegant  business  architecture  of  any  city  in  the  world. 
The  boast  was  too  bold,  altogether,  though  it  had  many  facts 
for  its'  foundation.  Nevertheless,  there  was  scarcely  any  of  the 
fine  buildings  of  Chicago  which  were  not  marred  by  tawdry 
ornaments,  endangering  its  safety.  Many  of  them  were  mass- 
ive, looking  like  very  Samsons  for  strength;  but  they  all  had 
the  vulnerable  heel  of  Achilles.  In  the  new  era  it  certainly 
may  be  expected  that  this  fault  will  be  mended,  that  publio 
opinion  will  demand  laws  compelling  the  erection  of  strong, 
fire-proof  buildings  only,  and  forbidding  any  man^to  place  in 


448  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

jeopardy  the  lives  and  property  of  his  fellow-citizens,  in  order 
that  he  may  save  a  few  dollars  for  himself.  We  piust  add,  in 
candor,  that  the  outset  of  the  New  Chicago  is  not  in  the  highest 
degree  reassuring  on  this  subject,  and  that,  so  far  as  present 
appearances  go,  people  are  to  be  left  very  much  to  their  own 
devices  regarding  the  style  of  their  building,  after  the  old  Chi- 
cago fashion,  which  allows  individuals  all  rights,  and  the  public 
at  large  none.  But  at  the  writing  of  this,  the  new  city  govern- 
ment, which  was  elected  as  a  "  Fire-proof"  government,  and  upon 
which  the  people  depend  for  a  more  firm,  upright,  and  intelli- 
gent conduct  of  municipal  affairs  than  heretofore,  had  not  as- 
sumed its  functions. 

The  charter  election,  which  followed  soon  after  the  conflagra- 
tion, furnishes  one  of  the  finest  illustrations  of  the  truism  that 
"fire  purifies."  It  was  shown  in  business  most  unmistakably. 
The  fire  assayed  the  metal  of  which  our  merchants  were  made, 
purifying  the  gold  from  the  dross,  showing  the  great  importers 
of  the  East  which  was  good  and  which  was  bad,  and  leaving 
the  name  of  many  a  Chicago  merchant,  who  thought  himself 
bankrupt,  shining  more  brightly  than  ever  in  the  ledgers  and 
memories  of  his  creditors  at  the  East.  It  made  an  in-vincible 
Gideon's  band  of  the  stanch  tradesmen  along  South  Water  Street, 
Lake  Street,  State  Street,  etc.  But  it  purified  our  politics  in  a 
still  more  marked  manner.  When  the  fire  happened,  the  city 
was  on  the  eve  of  a  charter  and  county  election,  with  an  almost 
certain  prospect  that  the  nominations  for  the  offices  to  be  filled 
would,  as  usual,  be  conferred  on  the  claes  who  made  it  their 
business  to  seek  those  offices  for  the  spoils  that  are  in  them. 

The  citizens  felt,  however,  that  this  would  be  too  great  a  mis- 
fortune to  endure  in  connection  with  the  grand  calamity  which 
they  had  just  undergone.  They  accordingly  set  about  fortifying 


GOOD  OUT  OF  EVIL.  449" 

themselves  against  the  known  advantages  of  the  office-seekers, 
chiefly  in  organization  and  possession  of  the  active  ward-poli- 
ticians. The  executive  committees  of  the  two  political  parties 
were  induced  to  compromise  with  each  other  upon  a  ticket, 
every  member  of  which,  as  nominated  by  one  committee,  was 
submitted  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  other  committee,  and  of  the 
public,  through  the  press.  At  length  a  complete  ticket  was 
made  out,  composed  of  names  of  the  very  best  class  of  citizens — 
men  who  had  rarely,  or  never,  run  for  office.  An  opposition 
ticket,  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  office-seekers,  or  "bum- 
mers," as  they  were  called,  was  made  up  and  violently  election- 
eered for  until  election-day;  but  the  "Fire-proof"  ticket  was 
found  to  be  elected  by  at  least  four  votes  to  each  one  of  the  op- 
position. Joseph  Medill,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Tribune, 
was  chosen  Mayor  by  this  election,  and  Fred.  Gund,  one  of  the 
Fire  Commis-sioners  under  whose  administration  the  city  burned 
up,  and  who  had  the  audacity  to  run  for  re-election,  was  defeated 
by  a  five-to-one  majority. 

Another  benefit  of  the  fire  was  to  open  people's  eyes  on.  the 
subject  of  insurance,  and  enable  all  to  know  what  was  good 
insurance  and  what  was  bogus.  The  experience  which  many 
obtained  proved  a  very  dear  school  to  them ;  but  it  can  not  be 
doubted  that  the  lesson  proved  worth,  in  the  aggregate,  all  it 
cost — that  is,  Chicago  and  a  few  insurance  towns  paid  for  the 
lesson  for  the  whole  country.  It  taught  that  insurance  in  com- 
panies which  were  doing  a  large  business  on  a  small  margin  of 
paid-up  capital,  or  which  insured  unlimited  amounts  in  any  one 
city,  was  no  insurance  at  all ;  and  it  taught  capitalists  to  be 
much  more  careful  than  hitherto  into  what  kind  of  companies 
they  put  their  funds,  and  underwriters  learned  by  it  to  limit 
their  amounts  of  insurance  in  any  locality,  and  make  more 
38 


450  CHICAGO   AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

rigid  requirements  concerning  precautions  against  fire.  By  this 
means  insurance,  which  was  at  first  thought  to  have  exploded 
completely,  will  become  much  stronger  than  it  really  was  be- 
fore. 

But  the  best  work  which  the  fire  has  wrought  has  been  upon 
the  character  and  habits  of  the  people,  rather  than  upon  their 
business,  political,  or  other  material  affairs.  The  people  of  Chi- 
cago were,  before  the  fire,  fust  lapsing  into  luxury — not  as  yet 
to  any  such  degree  as  the  people  of  New  York — but  still  more 
than  •  was  for  their  good.  The  fire  roused  them  from  this 
tendency,  and  made  them  the  same  strong  men  and  women,  of 
the  same  simple,  industrious,  self-denying  habits,  which  built  up 
Chicago,  and  pushed  her  so  powerfully  along  her  unparalleled 
career.  All  show  and  frivolity  were  abandoned,  and  democracy 
became  the  fashion.  People  found  new  and  rich  fields  of  useful- 
ness open  to  them.  Young  men  who,  in  anticipation  of  a  large 
inheritance,  had  commenced  to  lead  dawdling  lives,  now  rolled 
up  their  sleeves  and  went  to  work  in  the  store,  or  organized  a 
business  of  their  own  out  of  the  salvage  of  their  father's  capi- 
tal. Their  sisters  desisted  from  the  giddy  race  for  pre-eminence 
in  dressing,  flirting,  and  other  frivolous  pursuits,  and  became 
the  comfort  and  consolation  of  their  parents,  or  the  frugal 
wives  of  earnest  men.  Their  mothers  forsook  their  brilliant 
match-making,  their  incessant  "  shopping,"  and  their  schemes 
for  surpassing  their  neighbors  in  the  magnitude  and  absurdity 
of  their  assemblies — those  nonsensical  mobs  of  snobs  and  na- 
bobs which  abound  in  high  city  life  during  the  winter  season. 
Their  fathers,  who  had  been  lapsing  into  a  chronic  state  of  gout 
or  debility,  through  lack  of  nervous  stimulus,  went  back  to  the 
office  to  work,  and  felt  much  better  for  it.  Many  projected 
trips  to  unwholesome  haunts  of  folly  and  gilded  vice  were  aban- 


GOOD  OUT  OF   EVIL.  451 

doned,  and  work — work,  that  sweetener  of  rest  and  all 
legitimate  enjoyments — was  resumed  in  earnest.  Business 
men  greeted  each  other  gayly  in  their  temporary  shanties, 
and  said:  "Now,  this  is  something  like  it;  we've  got 
down  to  the  bed  rock  now" — a  miner's  phrase,  which  indi- 
cates a  poorer  yield  of  metal ;  but  the  "  bed  rock  "  shall  prove, 
after  all,  the  best  rock  on  which  to  build  the  new  Chicago — the 
firm  foundation  rock  of  her  business,  the  Plymouth  Rock  of 
her  society !  * 

The  light  of  the  fire  revealed  the  solidarity  of  the  nation.  It 
was  only  by  some  such  great  calamity  as  the  Chicago  fire  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  could  have  been  taught  how 
closely  bound  together  they  were — not  in  language  merely — 
not  in  politick  merely — not  in  race  merely,  but  in  interests  of 
apparently  the  most  private  and  individual  nature.  This  phase 
of  the  case  has  already  been  treated  upon  in  the  chapter  on 
"Sympathy  and  Relief."  Especially  along  the  great  lines  of 
railroad  and  telegraph  which  connect  the  East  with  the  West, 
the  union  was  found  to  be  very  complete ;  so  that  each  wave  of 
disaster  which  was  born  upon  the  western  shore  died  not  until  it 
had  reached  the  eastern. 

But  this  solidarity  of  the  nation  is  one  of  interest  merely. 
The  fire  revealed  another,  more  broadly  extending  and  more 
deeply  lying — the  solidarity  of  human  sympathy.  Never  be- 
fore did  the  maxim  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water,"  rise  to 
such  a  dignity,  or  receive  such  a  convincing  demonstration.  The 
revelation  of  brotherhood  and  intimate  fellowship  between 
"man  and  man,  the  wide  world  o'er,"  wfs  more  sudden  and 
spontaneous,  if  not  more  full,  than  ever  before  occurred. 

Were  the  reader  suddenly  asked  what  is  the  sublimest  specta- 
cle of  the  century,  he  might  at  first  answer,  a  vast  city 


452  CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

wrapped  in  flames;  mountains  of  fire  stretching  to  the  heavens ; 
a  black  empyrean  of  rolling  smoke;  a  crimson  river  with  car- 
nation bridges  over-arching  it;  a  sullen,  darkened  lake  sur- 
rounding it ;  a  constant  thunder  of  falling  walls  and  exploding 
elements;  a  constant  earthquake  shaking  the  ground  ;  a  hundred 
thousand  people  rushing,  shrieking,  struggling,  perishing.  This 
was,  indeed,  it  seemed  to  those  who  witnessed  it,  the  acme  of 
sublimity,  and  of  terror  as  well.  But  there  was  a  sublimer  one 
which  followed,  and  happily  blending  in  its  sublimity  a  world 
of  beauty.  It  was. the  sight  (too  glorious  for  the  physical  sense, 
but  none  the  less  clearly  brought  home  to  the  eye  of  the  mind) 
of  a  world  uniting  simultaneously  in  one  grand  act  of  love  to 
man,  and,  therefore,  worship  to  God,  the  source  of  love.  Can 
any  thing  more  impressive  to  the  mind,  more  melting  to  the 
heart,  be  conceived?  It  was  felt  at  Chicago  more  profoundly 
far  than  all  our  sufferings,  or  than  any  common  emotion  we  had 
ever  known.  Men  tried  to  speak  of  it  to  each  other  in  the  streets, 
and  broke  down  in  the  midst  of  the  sentence  which  they  would 
utter.  Men  who  would  make  a  mere  jest  of  their  wrecked  for- 
tunes, and  embrace  poverty  with  a  shrug  and  nothing  more, 
wept  like  children  when  they  came  to  speak  of  what  the  world 
was  doing  around  them.  This  is  already  an  old  theme.  Poets 
innumerable  have  sung  of  it,  armies  of  preachers  have  built 
sermons  upon.it,  and  hosts  of  writers  in  the  current  press  have 
woven  it  into  their  daily  discourse;  but  few  of  these  could  have 
felt  it  as  we  did,  here  in  its  focus. 

And  it  was  wonderful ! 

The  discordant  note,  announcing  sorrow,  death,  and  devasta- 
tion throughout  a  fair  and  prosperous  city,  went  forth  in  one 
hour  throughout  the  civilized  world,  shocking  and  stunning 
whom  it  struck.  In  another  hour  it  flowed  back,  resolved  into 


GOOD  OUT  OF  EVIL.  453 

the  most  delicious  chords  of  love  and  Christ-like  charity.  No 
man  who  felt  that  heaven-sent  strain  break  in  upon  his  senses 
.can  but  echo  in  his  heart,  however  grave  his  sufferings  may 
have  been,  the  words  of  America's  laureate  of  liberty : 

"Ah!  not  in  vain  the  flames  that  tossed 
Above  thy  dreadful  holocaust; 
The  Christ  again  has  preached  through  thee 
The  Gospel  of  Humanity 

"Then  lift  once  more  thy  towers  on  high. 

And  fret  with  spires  the  western  sky, 
a          To  tell  that  God  is  yet  with  us, 
And  love  is  still  miraculous  I " 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

THE   NEW   CHICAGO. 

Five  years  hence— Why  Chicago  will  keep  marching  on — Rate  of  recu- 
peration— Railroads  and  traffic — Changes  in  the  appearance'  of  the 
city — Harbor  and  river — Things  which  will  not  be  improved — Popula- 
tion in  1876. 

ONDON,  with  a  population  diminished  more  than  one- 
-*-*  third  by  the  plague  of  the  previous  year,  and  demoralized 
by  the  licentiousness  of  the  times  of  the  cavaliers,  recovered 
within  five  years  from  a  destruction  quite  as  complete  as  that  of 
Chicago.  -  New  York  was  visited  in  1835  by  a  conflagration, 
much  less  destructive  to  be  sure  than  this  of  ours,  but  it  was 
preceded  by  pestilence  in  1832  and  1834,  and  followed  by  the 
great  commercial  revulsion  of  1837;  in  spite  of  all  which  disas- 
ters, New  York  grew  in  that  decade  from  a  city  of  202,000 
people  to  one  of  312,000.  The  argument  from  this  is,  that  a 
general  conflagration  is  not  necessarily  fatal  to  a  city,  nor  even 
a  long-continued  check  upon  its  forward  career.  London  con- 
tinued to  grow  rapidly  because  it  had  made  itself  the  center  of 
an  immense  ocean  commerce,  and  the  metropolis  of  a  prosperous 
country.  New  York  bade  defiance  to  a  three- fold  disaster  for 
a  like  reason.  Chicago  has  fastened  upon  the  trade  of  the  great 
North-west  with  chains  that  can  not  be  unbound,  and  will  there- 
fore grow  with  that  rapidly  developing  country,  and  without 
(454) 


THE   NEW    CHICAGO.  456 

any  serious  hindrance  from  what  has  happened.  Individual 
fortunes  have  been,  in  some  cases,  irretrievably  lost,  though  the 
way  in  which  these  men  rebound,  even  from  out  the  slough 
of  despair,  is  something  wonderful ;  but  the  city  must  still  go 
marching  on.  The  West  must  have  her  for  uses  which  no 
other  locality  can  subserve,  and  which  no  other  city,  even  if  it 
had  the  advantage  of  location,  could  prepare  itsetf  to  subserve 
in  thrice  the  time  it  will  take  Chicago  to  recuperate.  The  pro- 
duce of  the  West  and  the  capital  of  the  East  are  alike  inter- 
ested in  keeping  Chicago  the  metropolis  of  the  North-west — an 
empire  already  vaster,  and  much  more  rapidly  growing,  than 
that  of  Great  Britain  at  the  time  London  was  destroyed. 

People  who  come  to  Chicago  and  take  a  survey  of  her  pres- 
ent apparent  desolation  are  shocked  by  it,  and  go  away  saying 
that  Chicago  can  not  be  rebuilt  in  less  than  a  generation.  They 
forget  that  Chicago  was  a  generation  in  attaining  her  late  mag- 
nificence simply  because  the  West  was  that  length  of  time  in 
growing  to  its  present  proportions ;  and  that  the  question  of  how 
long  it  will  take  to  rebuild  Chicago — the  West  being  still  in- 
tact around  her — is  simply  a  question  of  how  long  it  will 
require  for  the  country  to  produce  the  bricks  and  the  stone  to 
lay  up  her  walls  withal.  It  is  estimated  by  those  competent  to 
judge  of  this  that  three  years  will  be  adequate  to  the  work;  in 
other  words,  that  as  soon  as  the  grand  buildings  of  the  railway 
corporations,  the  city,  and  the  United  States  Government,  can 
be  completed  in  a  solid  manner,  they  will  already  be  surrounded 
by  a  complete  city,  equal  in  its  capacity  for  the  accommodation 
of  business  to  that  which  fell  in  the  Great  Conflagration.  The 
population  will  also,  by  that  time,  have  shot  considerably 
past  the  mark  of  September,  1871 ;  but  as  certain  fine  theaters, 
churches,  and  residences  will  still  be  behind,  it  is  better,  in 


456          CHICAGO  AND  THE  GREAT  CONFLAGRATION. 

order  to  be  within  the  bounds  of  moderation,  to  set  the  period 
of  Chicago's  complete  recuperation  at  five  years  from  the  date  of 
her  disaster — the  eighth  of  October,  1876. 

We  have  shown  in  a  previous  chapter  that  the  average  an- 
nual rate  of  increase  in  the  value  of  property  in  Chicago,  dur- 
ing the  ten  years  preceding  1871,  has  been  10J  per  cent,  which 
compounds  at  66£  per  cent,  in  five  years.  Thus,  reckoning 
only  the  ordinary  growth  of  the  city,  and  making  no  allowance 
for  the  extraordinary  stimulus  occasioned  by  the  sudden  neces- 
sities of  the  present  crisis,  the  value  of  property  lost  by  the 
fire  (one-third  of  the  whole)  would  be  more  than  recovered  by 
the  fall  of  1876.  It  may  be  argued  that  this  ratio  of  incre- 
ment will  be  diminished,  owing  to  the  lack  of  facilities  for  doing 
business,  and  the  consequent  diversion  of  trade  to  competing 
towns;  also  that  these  towns,  particularly  St.  Louis,  are  sharper 
competitors  than  London  had  in  1666;  but  this,  if  true,  applies 
only  in  a  small  measure.  The  country  had  already  elected 
Chicago  as  the  capital  of  the  North-west,  and  by  converging  in 
her  the  many  railroads  which  were  built  for  accommodating  the 
traffic  of  that  section,  fixed  her  as  the  seat  of  that  traffic  more 
firmly  far  than  a  State  statute  and  a  million  or  two  of  dollars 
in  public  buildings,  fixes  the  capital  of  a  State  in  Albany  or 
Springfield.  Saying  nothing  of  the  $400,000,000  of  capital 
still  represented  in  the  buildings,  lands,  and  merchandise  of 
Chicago,  there  are  $300,000,000  invested  in  her  railroads,  every 
dollar  of  which  is  vitally  interested  in  keeping  the  traffic  of  the 
North-west  upon  these  roads.  New  York  commercial  capital  is 
interested  in  the  same  direction,  for  Chicago  is  by  all  odds  New 
York's  best  customer,  and  whatever  trade  should  be  diverted 
from  Chicago  to  St.  Louis,  or  Cincinnati,  would  also  be  diverted 
from  New  York  to  Philadelphia.  With  all  these  artificial  in- 


THE    NEW  -CHICAGO.  457 

fluences,  and  the  same  powerful  natural  influences  which  fixed 
Chicago  where  she  is,  working  together  for  her  restoration,  it 
will  not  be  possible  for  other  influences  to  distract  much  of  her 
trade  or  delay  her  growth  in  population  a  single  year,  or  hinder 
the  reconstruction  of  her  edifices  beyond  the  date  which  we 
have  set  down — the  eighth  of  October,  1876. 

The  disaster  to  Chicago  will  not  probably  delay  at  all  the 
enlargement  of  the  Niagara  and  St.  Lawrence  Canals,  and  the 
deepening  of  the  channels  at  each  end  of  Lake  Huron,  both  of 
which  measures  for  the  improvement  of  navigation  and  the 
substitution  of  larger  vessels  (and  hence  cheaper  rates)  for  the 
grain  traffic  of  the  country,  are  to  be  undertaken  at  government 
expense.  These  measures,  though  not  at  the  expense  of  Chi- 
cago, will  still  benefit  Chicago  greatly  by  making  the  produc- 
tion of  grain  more  profitable  to  the  farmer,  who,  as  a  conse- 
quence, will  not  only  raise  more  grain,  but  have  more  money 
to  spend  in  Chicago.  At  the  same  time  the  improvement  of* 
this  water  route  will  increase  Chicago's  facilities  as  an  import- 
ing city — a  function  which  she  had  just  began  to  develop  ex- 
tensively at  the  time  the  disaster  struck  her.  There  are  also 
two  or  more  trunk  railways  from  the  East  proposing  to  enter 
Chicago  to  compete  for  -the  trade  of  the  North-west.  These, 
if  completed  (and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  be  in- 
terrupted by  what  has  happened),  will  still  further  increase 
the  business  of  this  metropolis,  as  will  also  the  four  or  five 
proposed  now  routes  diverging  into  the  grain  and  stock  pro- 
ducing country,  and  the  route  via  Evansville  to  Mobile,  to  be 
finished  early  in  1872,  which  ought  to  bring  in  bond  all  the 
West  India  goods  consumed  in  the  North-west,  the  merchants 
of  Chicago  deriving  from  this  trade  the  large  profits  of  the 
importers,  instead  of  the  small  ones  of  the  simple  jobber. 
39 


458  CHICAGO   AND   THE    GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

At  the  same  time  that  this  increase  in  trade  is  going  on 
(subject  to  the  drawbacks  already  mentioned),  certain  lines  of 
manufactures  may  be  established  to  increase  considerably,  for 
instance,  those  of  all  materials  nsed  in  building  and  furnish- 
ing stores  and  houses,  and  those  of  light  articles,  the  help  for 
making  which  can  be  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  shop 
girls  and  boys  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  fire,  or  forced 
by  the  hard  times  upon  such  industrial  pursuits. 

The  city  may  be  expected,  then,  to  make  a  greater  show  of 
railway  and  shipping  warehouses  than  before  the  fire.  The 
streets,  except  a  few  of  them,  will  not  be  built  up  with  stores 
so  continuously  as  before  the  fire,  but  the  amount  of  facilities 
for  business — especially  for  wholesale  business,  will  be  greater 
than  it  was;  while  the  public  buildings,  as  the  Post-office, 
Custom-house,  City  Hall,  railway  passenger  depots,  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  etc.,  will  present  an  appearance  corresponding 
to  a  city  three  or  four  times  as  great  as  that  for  which  the 
destroyed  structures  were  built.  Public  libraries  and  galleries 
of  art  will  have  to  wait  longer,  as  will  also  the  park  improve- 
ments which  the  citizens  were  projecting  on  such  a  mammoth 
scale;  but  the  theaters,  at  the  date  specified  will  have  just  about 
recovered  the  number  and  magnitude  which  they  had  attained 
before  the  fire,  and  that,  be  it  recollected,  was  two-fold  greater 
than  one  year  before,  and  at  least  four-fold  greater  than  any 
other  Western  city  could  boast. 

Let  it  not  be  understood,  however,  that  fortunes  will  be 
rebuilt  within  any  such  period,  or  that  the  private  luxury  and 
elegance  of  yesterday  will  be  re-established.  The  business 
marts  will  be  humming  again  simply  because  they  must,  but 
in  many  cases  other  men  will  preside  over  them,  while  some 
who  worked  with  the  head  yesterday  will  work  with  the  hands 


THE   NEW  CHICAGO.  459 

then.  The  most  of  the  business  men  of  Chicago,  however, 
have  too  much  pluck,  and  also  too  much  of  the  quality  called 
brass  for  that.  They  will  make  a  shift — indeed  two-thirds  of 
them  have  already  made  a  shift  to  resume  their  places  as  pro- 
prietors, and  get  capital  from  somewhere — the  Lord,  who 
tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,  knows  where.  A  single 
rase  illustrates  this.  The  writer,  wandering  among  the  mourn- 
ful ruins  of  the  North  Division,  on  the  day  after  that  quarter 
was  destroyed,  met  an  acquaintance  whom  he  accosted  with  the 
usual  salutation:  "How  did  you  come  out?"  The  answer 
was:  "Yesterday  morning  I  had  a  warehouse  over  there  with 
$30,000  worth  of  wool  in  it,  I  had  a  fine  house,  well  furnished, 
for  my  home,  and  two  others  to  help  out  my  income.  To-day, 
I  've  got  what  I  have  on  my  back ;  my  wife  the  same — that  is 
all.'x  "Are  you  going  to  give  up?"  we  asked.  "No,  sir," 
he  answered.  A  fortnight  later  we  encountered  the  same 
friend  dashing  down  the  street  at  great  speed.  He  had  got 
track  of  a  man  who  would,  he  thought,  put  up  a  building  for 
him,  and  was  going  to  have  the  contract  made  before  night. 
He  was  buoyant  and  enthusiastic. 

Probably  the  reader  of  this  history  who  visits  Chicago  five 
years  hence,  will  find  this  man  in  full  blast  in  his  new  ware- 
house, not  with  thirty,  but  with  sixty  or  ninety  thousand  dollars* 
worth  of  wool  in  store,  and  not  with  two,  but  four  houses  to 
rent ;  for  it  is  such  pluck  as  this  that  wins  in  the  West. 

This  visitor  will  see,  besides  the  twenty  railroads  which 
already  converge  at  Chicago,  the  six  important  lines  now  pro- 
jected, also  entering  the  heart  of  the  city,  probably  by  sunk 
1  racks,  and  through  viaducts  at  every  street-crossing.  He  will 
see,  let  us  hope,  a  consolidation  of  all  the  passenger  stations 


460  CHICAGO  AND   THE   GREAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

into  three  at  most,  and  will  be  told  that  the  system  of  omnibus 
tolls  upon  travelers  has  been  abolished. 

He  will  see  the  streets  of  the  central  portion  of  the  city  (the 
burnt  district  of  the  South  and  part  of  that  of  the  North  Division?) 
raised  from  two  to  three  feet  above  their  present  grade,  and  from 
ten  to  fifteen  above  the  original  level  of  the  prairie.  As  a  con- 
comitant of  this,  he  will  see  a  good  portion  of  our  sewerage 
reversed  in  its  course,  as  the  river  has  already  been  served. 
The  buildings  which  line  these  streets  he  will  find  to  be  chiefly 
of  brick,  and  of  soberer  appearance  than  the  gay,  cream-colored 
stone  (treacherous  beauty!)  which  so  delighted  his  eye  in  the 
summer  of  '71.  He  will  mark,  nevertheless,  the  solidity  and 
substantiality  of  every  thing,  and  will  query  if,  after  all,  the 
painted  red  brick  fronts,  relieved  at  intervals  by  cream-colored 
walls  from  Milwaukee,  or  rich,  natural  red  from  Philadelphia 
or  Baltimore,  or  light  brown  sandstone  from  Cleveland,  or 
gray  granite  from  Duluth,  or  ruddy  brown  sandstone  from  Lake 
Superior,  or  the  censured,  but  not  entirely  tabooed  limestone  from 
Joliet,  be  not,  after  all,  in  their  endless  variety,  more  cheerful 
ihau  the  stately  monotony  of  the  old  era.  He  will  see  few  man- 
sard roofs  or  ornate  cornices,  but  will,  nevertheless,  be  pleased 
with  the  brightness  and  newness  of  every  thing;  and  since  the 
beauty  of  a  thing  consists,  in  great  part,  of  its  fitness  for  the 
place  which  it  occupies,  the  visitor  will  be,  or,  at  least  should  be, 
inclined  to  pronounce  favorably  concerning  the  beauty  of  the 
new  Chicago. 

He  will  notice  that  the  pavements  are,  as  in  '71,  notable  fcr 
their  smoothness  and  silence  under  the  wheel,  being  made  of 
wooden  blocks,  as  now,  or  of  the  asphalt-rock  concrete,  in 
making  which  we  are  improving  so  much  every  day.  He  will 
see  sidewalks  built  of  this  material,  being  laid  in  the  filled  dis- 


THE   NEW    CHICAGO.  461 

tricts  over  brick  arches;  and  lie  will  find,  on  passing  tinder 
these  sidewalks  that  the  vaults,  thus  formed,  are  absolutely  fire- 
proof receptacles  for  such  articles  as  may  be  consigned  to  them. 

He  will  see  upon  the  lake  shore  an  inclosed  harbor  of  refuge, 
lined  on  two  sides  with  slips  for  the  accommodation  of  vessels 
of  greater  draft  and  tonnage  than  have  ever  come  to  this  port 
hitherto.  Passing  up  the  river  (that  is,  down  it  toward  the 
Mississippi),  he  will  find  its  docks  devoted  more  to  the  unload- 
ing and  storing  of  iron,  coal,  and  heavy  merchandise  than  they 
now  are,  much  of  the  merchandise  being  brought  in  on  lighter 
scows  from  the  outer  harbor.  He  will  look  in  vain  for  any 
yards  or  depositories  for  lumber  within  two  and  a  half  miles 
of  the  river's  mouth. 

He  will  not  find  the  business  of  the  great  Union  Stock 
Yards  much  increased,  though  he  knows  that  that  was  almost 
the  only  interest  which  did  not  suffer  by  the  fire.  On  asking 
the  reason  for  this,  he  will  learn  that,  as  the  country  for  graz- 
ing has  been  pushed  gradually  westward  and  southward,  the 
cities  which  sprang  up  thereaway,  particularly  Kansas  City, 
had  naturally  become,  to  a  considerable  degree,  the  distributing 
points  of  cattle  for  the  East;  but  that  the  increased  consump- 
tion of  meats  in  Chicago  and  the  district  supplied  from  Chi- 
cago, had  kept  up  the  demand  at  about  the  old  figures. 

He  will  see  no  greater  area  covered  by  Chicago  than  he  saw 
five  years  before,  except  at  the  suburbs  along  the  railroads, 
whither  people  of  moderate  means  will  go  to  build  wooden 
houses,  and  avoid  what  many  will  doubtless  call  the  odious  fire 
ordinance,  which  will  prohibit  all  wooden  houses  within  the 
city  limits.  He  will  see  steam  or  compressed  air  substituted 
for  horse-power  upon  the  most  of  the  street-railways. 

He  will  see  a  population  greater'  by  nearly  one  hundred 


462  CHICAGO   AND  THE   GKEAT   CONFLAGRATION. 

thousand  than  that  which  Uncle  Sam's  census-taker  found  in 
1870.  These  people  will  look  hard-worked,  and  those  of  the 
old  lot  will  seem  more  than  five  years  older  than  they  did  on  a 
September  morning  in  1871.  They  may  well  be  advised,  at 
that  time,  to  pause  a  little  in  their  hard  chase  after  material 
things,  and  consider  those  of  the  heart,  the  mind,  and  the  im- 
mortal soul ;  and  if  the  visitor  be  of  a  missionary  turn,  he  can 
not  throw  his  subjects  into  a  tender  mood  more  effectually  than 
by  reminding  them  of  the  night  of  the  8th  of  October,  '71, 
and  of  how  the  world  stood  by  Chicago  in  that  sad  time. 

But  he  will,  on  the  whole,  be  proud  of  the  new  Chicago, 
from  whate  .rer  quarter  he  may  hail.  He  will  find  her  changed 
from  the.  Chicago  of  yesterday  in  such  manner  as  the  wild  and 
wanton  girl,  of  luxurious  beauty,  and  generous,  free  ways,  is 
changed  when,  becoming  a  wife,  a  great  bereavement,  or  the 
pangs  and  burdens  of  maternity  overtake  her,  robbing  her 
cheek  of  its  rich  flush,  but  at  the  same  time  ripening  her 
beauty,  elevating,  deepening,  expanding  her  character,  and  im- 
buing her  with  a  susceptibility  of  feeling,  a  consciousness  of 
strength,  and  an  earnestness  of  purpose  which  she  knew  not 
before. 

When,  thus  transformed,  the  new  Chicago  shall  go,  on  the 
centennial  of  our  nation's  birth,  to  join  her  sisters  in  laying  the 
laurel  wreath  upon  the  mother  Columbia's  brow,  she  will  be 
greeted  with  signal  warmth  by  each  and  all  of  them,  and  wel- 
comed back  from  out  her  vale  of  affliction  as  one  who  had  suf- 
fered that  she  might  be  strong. 


APPENDIX  A. 
THE  GREAT  FIRES  OF  HISTORY. 


BURNING  OF  EOME. 

IN  the  year  64,  during  the  reign  of  the  tyrant  Nero,  the  city  of  Rome,  hia 
capital,  suffered  a  terrible  conflagration,  lasting  eight  days,  and  destroying 
ten  of  the  fourteen  wards  of  the  city.  Several  historians  maintain  that  Nero 
eet  the  fire  himself,  but  there  is  considerable  doubt  about  this,  as  also  about 
the  story  of  the  emperor's  fiddling  (or  playing  the  flute)  while  the  city 
burned.  Either  act,  however,  would  have  been  characteristic  of  the  man. 

Nero  was  liberal  to  the  sufferers  by  the  fire,  and  rebuilt  the  city  on  a  new 
and  improved  plan,  with  money  which  he  had  extorted  from  the  people. 
He  charged  the  conflagration  upon  the  Christians,  many  of  whom  he  put  to 
death  by  burning.  Gibbon  writes  graphically  of  this  fire  in  his  "Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire."  The  population  of  Rome,  at  the  time  of 
its  burning,  was  more  than  a  million  souls. 

THE  GREAT  FIRE  OF  LONDON. 

The  nearest  parallel  in  history  to  the  Chicago  Conflagration  is  the  Great 
Fire  in  London,  which  commenced  on  the  2d  of  September,  1666,  and  con- 
tinued five  days.  As  in  Chicago,  the  fire  was  owing  to  wooden  houses,  a  very 
dry  season,  and  a  high  wind ;  and,  as  in  Chicago,  the  pumping  works  which 
supplied  the  city  with  water  were  very  soon  destroyed,  thereby  paralyzing  the 
powers  of  the  fire  department,  and  of  all  who  might,  with  private  engines, 
Lave  raved  their  own  property,  or  helped  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
flames.  Like  the  fire  at  Chicago,  it  broke  out  upon  a  Sunday,  though  at  a 
different  hour — two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  It  originated  in  a  bake-house, 
kept  by  a  man  with  the  quaint  name  of  Farryner,  at  Pudding  Lane,  near 
the  Tower.  At  that  period,  the  buildings  in  the  English  capital  were  chiefly 

(463) 


464  APPENDIX. 

constructed  of  wood,  with  pitched  roofs;  and  in  this  particular  locality, 
which  waa  immediately  adjacent  to  the  water  side,  the  stores  were  mainly 
filled  with  materials  employed  in  the  equipment  of  shipping,  mostly,  of 
course,  of  a  highly  combustible  nature.  The  vacillation  and  indecision  of 
the  lord  mayor  aggravated  the  confusion.  For  several  hours  he  refused  to 
1  .*ten  to  the  counsel  given  him  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  military ;  and  when 
the  probable  proportions  of  the  fire  were  plainly  apparent,  and  when  it  waa 
clear  that  the  destruction  of  a  block  of  houses  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  preservation  of  the  city,  he  declined  to  accept  the  responsibility  of  de- 
stroying them  until  he  could  obtain  the  consent  of  their  owners.  He  was, 
evidently,  like  Governor  Palmer,  of  Illinois,  a  man  of  high  legal  punctilio. 

The  most  graphic  and  circumstantial  account  of  this  fire  is  that  contained 
in  the  diary  of  John  Evelyn,  in  his  "  Diary,"  published  soon  after  the  event. 
Commencing  on  the  second  day  of  the  fire,  it  runs  thus : 

"  Sept.  3d. — The  fire  continuing  after  dinner,  I  took  coach  with  my  wife 
and  son  and  went  to  the  Bankside,  in  Southwark,  where  we  beheld  that 
dreadful  spectacle — the  whole  city  in  dreadful  flames  near  ye  water  side ;  all 
the  houses  from  the  Bridge,  all  Thames  Street,  and  upwards  towards  Cheap- 
side,  down  to  the  Three  Cranes,  were  now  consumed. 

"The  fire  having  continued  all  this  night  (if  I  may  call  that  night,  which 
was  as  light  as  day  for  ten  miles  round  about,  after  a  dreadful  manner), 
when  conspiring  with  a  fierce  eastern  wind  in  a  very  drie  season,  I  went  on 
foot  to  the  same  place  and  saw  the  whole  south  part  of  ye  city  burning  from 
Cheapside  to  the  Thames,  and  all  along  Cornhill  (for  it  kindled  back 
against  the  wind  as  well  as  forward),  Tower  Street,  Fenchurch  Street, 
Gracious  Street,  and  so  along  to  Bainard's  Castle,  and  was  now  taking  hold 
of  St.  Paule's  Church,  to  wTiich  the  scaffolds  contributed  exceedingly.  The 
conflagration  waa  so  universal  and  the  people  so  astonished  that,  from  the 
beginning — I  know  not  from  what,  despondency  or  fate — they  hardly  strived 
to  quench  it,  so  that  there  was  nothing  hearde  or  scene  but  crying  out  and 
lamentation ;  running  about  like  distracted  creatures,  without  at  all  attempt- 
ing to  save  even  their  goods,  such  a  strange  consternation  there  was  upon 
them;  so,  as  it  burned,  both  in  length  and  breadth,  the  churches,  public 
halls,  Exchange,  hospitals,  monuments,  and  ornaments,  leaping  after  a  pro- 
digious manner  from  house  to  house  and  streete  to  streete,  at  greate  distance 
one  from  ye  other;  for  ye  heate,  with  a  long  set  of  faire  and  warme  weather, 
had  even  ignited  the  air,  and  prepared  the  materials  to  conceive  the  fire, 
>vluch  devoured  after  an  incredible  manner  houses,  furniture,  and  every 
thing.  Here  we  saw  the  Thames  covered  with  goods  floating,  all  the  bargea 
and  boats  laden  with  what  some  had  time  and  courage  to  save ;  as  on  ye 
other,  ye  carts,  etc.,  currying  out  to  the  fields,  which  for  many  miles  were 


APPENDIX.  465 

strewed  with  moveables  of  all  sorts,  and  tents  erecting  to  shelter  both  people 
and  what  goods  they  could  get  away.  Oh,  the  miserable  and  calamitous 
spectacle!  such  as  haply  the  world  had  not  scene  the  like  since  the  founda- 
tion of  it,  nor  to  be  outdone  till  the  universal  conflagration.  All  the  sky 
was  of  a  fiery  aspect,  like  the  top  of  a  burning  oven,  the  light  scene  abrve 
forty  miles  round  about  for  many  nights.  God  grant  my  eyes  may  never 
behold  the  like,  now  seeing  above  ten  thousand  houses  all  in  one  flame;  the 
noise,  and  crackling,  and  thunder  of  the  impetuous  flames,  ye  shrieking  c  f 
women  and  children,  the  -hurry  of  people,  the  fall  of  towers,  houses,  an  1 
churches  was  like  an  hideous  storme,  and  the  aire  all  about  so  hot  and  in- 
flamed that  at  last  one  was  not  able  to  approach  it,  so  that  they  were  forced 
to  stand  stille  and  let  the  flames  burn  on,  which  they  did  for  near  two  miles 
in  length  and  one  in  breadth.  The  clouds  of  smoke  were  dismall,  and 
reached,  upon  computation,  near  fifty  miles  in  length.  Thus  I  left  it  in  the 
afternoone  burning — a  resemblance  to  Sodom,  or  the  last  day.  London  was, 
but  is  no  more ! 

"Sept.  4th. — The  burning  still  rages,  and  it  was  now  gotten  so  far  as  the 
Inner  Temple,  Olde  Fleete  Strefg*,  the  Olde  Bailey,  Ludgate  Hill,  War- 
wick Lane.  Newgate,  Paule's  Chain,  Watling  Streete,  now  flaming  and  most 
of  it  reduced  to  ashes;  the  stones  of  Paule's  flew  like  granados,  ye  melting 
lead  running  down  the  streetes  in  a  streame,  and  the  very  pavements  glow- 
ing with  fiery  rednesse,  so  as  no  horse  or  man  was  able  to  tread  on  them, 
and  the  demolition  had  slopped  all  the  passages,  so  that  no  help  could  be 
applied.  The  eastern  wind  still  more  impetuously  drove  the  flames  for- 
ward. Nothing  bnt  ye  almighty  power  of  God  was  able  to  stop  them,  for 
vaine  was  ye  helpe  of  man. 

"Sept.  5th. — It  crossed  towards  Whitehalle;  oh,  the  confusion  there  was 
then  at  that  Court !  It  pleased  His  Majesty  to  command  me  among  the  rest 
to  looke  after  the  quenching  of  Fetter  Lane,  and  to  preserve,  if  possible, 
that  part  of  Holborne,  while  ye  rest  of  ye  gentlemen  took  their  several  posts 
and  began  to  consider  that  nothing  was  so  likely  to  put  a  stop  but  the  blow- 
ing up  of  so  many  houses  as  might  make  a  wider  gap  than  any  had  yet 
been  made  by  the  ordinary  method  of  pulling  them  down  by  engines." 

Then,  after  a  description  of  the  abating  of  the  wind  and  the  gradual  dying 
out  of  the  fire,  the  quaint  old  diarist  continues: 

"The  poor  inhabitants  were  dispersed  about  St.  George's  Fields  and  Moor- 
fieldp,  as  far  as  High  gate,  and  several  myles*  in  circle,  some  under  tents, 
some  under  miserable  hut)  and  hovels,  many  without  a  rag  or  any  necessary 
utensils,  bed,  or  board,  who,  from  delicateness,  riches,  and  easy  accommoda- 
tion in  st.itdy  and  well-furnished  houses,  were  reduced  now  to  eitreoieat 
roirery  and  poverty." 


466  APPENDIX. 

And  again: 

"  I  then  went  towards  Islington  and  Highgate,  where  one  might  have  scene 
200,000  people,  of  all  ranks  and  degrees,  dispersed  and  lying  along  by  their 
heapes  of  what  they  could  save  from  the  fire,  deploring  their  losse ;  and, 
though  ready  to  perish  from  hunger  and  destitution,  yet  not  asking  one 
penny  for  relief,  which  to  me  appeared  a  stranger  sight  than  any  I  had  vet 
beheld." 

Nearly  two-thirds  of  the  entire  city  were  destroyed.  Thirteen  thousand 
houses,  eighty-nine  churches,  and  many  public'  buildings  were  reduced  to 
charred  wood  and  ashes.  Three  hundred  and  seventy-three  acres  within, 
and  sixty-three  acres  without,  the  walls  were  utterly  devastated.  The  occa- 
sion was  improved  by  the  preachers  of  those  days,  as  did  the  Chicago  Con- 
flagration inspire  the  preachers  o.  our  day. 

THE  BURNING  OF  MOSCOW,  1812. 

The  burning  of  Moscow,  by  its  citizens,  in  1812,  to  prevent  its  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  notorious  Frenchmen,  is  one  of  the  best  known  of  historical 
events.  The  invading  army,  under  Waporeon,  had  taken  possession,  and  the 
citizens  had  fled  almost  to  a  man.  A  few  remained  behind  to  fire  the  city, 
by  order  of  Count  Potapchin,  the  Governor,  who  had  set  the  example  by 
firing  his  own  magnificent  country  palace  on  the  road  to  the  city,  and  leaving 
a  defiant  inscription  on  its  gates. 

The  conquering  army  entered  the  city  on  the  15th  of  September,  the 
Emperor  taking  possession  of  the  Kremlin,  the  ancient  palace  of  the  Czars. 
The  events  which  followed  his  solemn  entry  into  the  tenantless  city  are  thus 
described  by  Sir  Archibald  Alison :  On  the  night  of  the  14th  a  fire  broke 
out  in  the  Bourse,  behind  the  Bazaar,  which  soon  consumed  that  noble 
edifice,  and  spread  to  a  considerable  part  of  the  crowded  streets  in  the  vicin- 
ity. This,  however,  was  but  the  prelude  to  more  extended  calamities.  At 
midnight,  on  the  15th,  a  bright  light  was  seen  to  illuminate  the  northern 
and  western  parts  of  the  city ;  and  the  sentinels  on  watch  at  the  Kremlin 
soon  discovered  the  splendid  edifices  in  that  quarter  to  be  in  flames.  The 
vrind  changed  repeatedly  during  the  night,  but  to  whatever  quarter  it  veered 
the  conflagration  extended  itself;  fresh  fires  were  every  instant  seen  breaking 
out  in  all  directions,  and  Moscow  soon  exhibited  the  spectacle  of  a  sea  of 
flame  agitated  by  the  wind.  The  soldiers,  drowned  in  sleep  or  overcome  by 
intoxication,  were  incapable  of  arresting  its  progress;  and  the  burning  frag- 
ments floating  through  the  hot  air  began  to  fall  on  the  roofs  and  courts  of 
the  Kremlin.  The  fury  of  an  autumnal  tempest  added  to  the  horrors  of  the 
scene ;  it  seemed  as  if  the  wrath  of  heaven  had  combined  with  the  vengeance 
of  man  to  consume  the  invaders  of  the  city  they  had  conquered. 


APPENDIX.  467 

But  it  was  chiefly  during  the  nights  of  the  18th  and  19th  that  the  con- 
flagration attained  its  greatest  violence.  At  that  time  the  whole  city  was 
wrapped  in  flames,  and  volumes  of  fire  of  various  colors  ascended  to  the 
heavens  in  many  places,  diffusing  a  prodigious  light  on  all  sides,  and  att  «nded 
by  an  intolerable  heat  These  balloons  of  flame  were  accompanied  in  their 
ascent  by  a  frightful  hissing  noise  and  loud  explosions,  the  effect  of  the  vast 
stores  of  oil,  resin,  tar,  spirits,  and  other  combustible  materials  with  which 
the  greater  part  of  the  shops  were  filled.  Large  pieces  of  painted  canvas, 
unrolled  from  the  outside  of  the  buildings  by  the  violence  of  the  heat,  floated 
on  fire  in  the  atmosphere,  and  sent  down  on  all  sides  a  flaming  shower,  which 
spread  the  conflagration  in  quarters  even  the  most  removed  from  where  it 
originated.  The  wind,  naturally  high,  was  raised,  by  the  sudden  rarefaction 
of  the  air  produced  by  the  heat,  to  a  perfect  hurricane.  The  howling  of  the 
tempest  drowned  even  the  roar  of  the  conflagration ;  the  whole  heavens  were 
filled  with  the  whirl  of  the  volumes  of  smoke  and  flame  which  rose  on  all 
sides  and  made  midnight  as  bright  as  day ;  while  even  the  bravest  hearts, 
subdued  by  the  sublimity  of  the  scene,  and  the  feeling  of  human  impotence 
in  the  midst  of  such  elemental  strife,  sank  and  trembled  in  silence. 

The  return  of  day  did  not  diminish  the  terrors  of  the  conflagration.  An 
immense  crowd  of  hitherto  unseen  people,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  cel- 
lars and  vaults  of  their  buildings,  issued  forth  as  the  flames  reached  their 
dwellings ;  the  streets  were  speedily  filled  with  multitudes  flying  in  every  di- 
rection, with  their  most  precious  articles;  while  the  French  army,  whose 
discipline  this  fatal  event  had  entirely  dissolved,  assembled  in  drunken 
crowds  and  loaded  themselves  with  the  spoils  of  the  city.  Never  in  modern 
times  had  such  a  scene  been  witnessed.  The  men  were  loaded  with  packages 
charged  with  their  most  precious  effects,  which  often  took  fire  as  they  were 
carried  along,  and  which  they  were  obliged  to  throw  down  to  save  them- 
selves. The  women  had  often  two  or  three  children  on  their  backs,  and  as 
many  led  by  the  hand,  which,  with  trembling  steps  and  piteous  cries,  sought 
their  devious  way  through  the  labyrinth  of  flame.  Many  old  men,  unable 
to  walk,  were  drawn  on  hurdles  or  wheelbarrows  by  their  children  and 
grandchildren,  while  their  burnt  beards  and  smoking  garments  showed  with 
what  difficulty  they  had  been  rescued  from  the  flames.  Often  the  French 
soldiers,  tormented  by  hunger  and  thiret,  and  loosened  from  all  discipline  by 
the  horrors  which  surrounded  them,  not  contented  with  the  booty  in  the 
streets,  rushed  headlong  into  the  burning  edifices  to  ransack  their  cellars  for 
the  stores  of  wine  and  spirits  which  they  contained,  and  beneath  the  ruins 
great  numbers  perished  miserably,  the  victims  of  intemperance  and  the  sur- 
rounding  fire.  Meanwhile  the  flames,  fanned  by  the  tempestuous  gale,  ad- 
vanced with  frightful  rapidity,  devouring  alike  in  their  course  the  palacea 


468  APPENDIX. 

of  the  great,  the  temples  of  religion,  and  the  cottages  of  the  poor.  For 
thirty -six  hours  the  conflagration  continued  at  its  height,  and  during  that 
time  above  nine-tenths  of  the  city  was  destroyed.  The  remainder,  abandoned 
to  pillage  and  deserted  by  its  inhabitants,  offered  no  resources  to  the  army. 
Moscow  had  been  conquered,  but  the  victors  had  gained  only  a  heap  of 
ruins.  It  is  estimated  that  30,800  houses  were  consumed,  and  the  total  value 
of  property  destroyed  amounted  to  £30,000,000. 

AT  NEW  YORK,  1835. 

At  between  eight  and  nine  o'clock  of  the  evening  above  stated,  the  fire  was 
discovered  in  the  store  No.  25  Merchant  Street,  a  narrow  street  that  led  from 
Pearl  into  Exchange  Street,  near  where  the  Post-office  then  was.  The  flames 
spread  rapidly,  and  at  ten  o'clock  forty  of  the  most  valuable  dry  goods  stores 
in  the  city  were  burned  down  or  on  fire.  The  narrowness  of  Merchant 
Street,  and  the  gale  which  was  blowing,  aided  the  spread  of  the  destructive 
element.  It  passed  from  building  to  building,  leaped  across  the  street  be- 
tween the  blocks,  urged  by  the  gale  and  in  nowise  deterred  by  the  feeble 
forces  opposing  it.  The  night  was  bitterly  cold,  and,  though  the  firemen 
were  most  energetic,  the  freezing  of  the  hose  and  the  water  in  their  defective 
engines,  combined  with  their  sufferings  from  the  weather,  made  their  efforts 
of  little  avail.  The  flames  spread  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  until 
almost  every  building  on  the  area  bounded  by  Wall,  South,  and  Broad 
Streets  and  Coenties  slip,  was  burning,  gutted,  or  leveled  to  the  ground. 
There  was  not  a  building  destroyed  on  Broad  Street,  nor  on  the  block  on  Wall 
Street  from  William  to  Broad  Street,  the  fire  taking  an  almost  circular  course 
just  at  the  rear  of  the  buildings  on  the  streets  named.  The  scene  in  the 
night  was  one  of  indescribable  grandeur,  the  glare  from  the  three  hundred 
buildings  that  were  at  one  time  burning  brightly  lighting  up  the  whole  city. 
In  all,  five  hundred  and  thirty  buildings  were  destroyed ;  they  were  of  the 
largest  and  most  costly  description,  and  were  filled  with  the  most  valuable 
goods.  The  total  loss,  estimated  at  about  §20,000,000,  was  afterward  found 
to  be  about  $15,000,000.  Of  the  buildings  destroyed  the  most  important 
were  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  the  Post-office,  the  offices  of  the  celebrated 
bankers,  the  Josephs,  the  Aliens,  and  the  Livingstons,  the  Phoenix  Bank,  and 
the  building  owned  and  occupied  by  Arthur  Tappan,  then  much  despised  for 
his  anti-slavery  sympathies.  The  business  portion  of  the  city  was  alone 
that  burned  over,  so  that  few  poor  were  rendered  otherwise  than  without 
employment.  The  disaster  was  considered  so  severe  that  many  predicted 
that  the  city  would  never  recover  from  the  fearful  blow  which  it  had  sus- 
tained. 


APPENDIX.  469 

m  * 

AT  CHARLESTON,  1838. 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  was,  on  the  27th  of  April,  1838,  visited  by  one  of 
the  most  destructive  fires  that  has  ever  occurred  in  any  city  in  this  coun- 
try. A  territory  equal  to  almost  one-half  of  the  entire  city  was  made  deso- 
late. The  fire  broke  out  at  a  quarter  past  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
the  day  mentioned,  in  a  paint-shop  on  King  Street,  corner  of  Beresford,  and 
raged  until  about  twelve  A.  M.  of  the  following  day.  It  was  then  arrested 
by  the  blowing  up  of  buildings  in  its  path.  There  were  1158  buildings  de- 
stroyed, and  the  loss  occasioned  was  about  $3,000,000.  The  worst  feature  of 
the  catastrophe  was  the  loss  of  life  which  occurred  while  the  houses  were 
being  blown  up.  Through  the  careless  manner  in  which  the  gunpowder  was 
used,  four  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  the  city  were  killed  and  a  num- 
ber injured. 

AT  PITTSBURGH,  1845. 

Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  was  visited  by  a  most  destructive  conflagration  on  the  10th 
of  April,  1845.  By  it  a  very  large  portion  of  the  city  was  laid  waste,  and 
a  greater  number  of  houses  destroyed  than  by  all  the  fires  that  had  occurred 
previously  to  it.  Twenty  squares,  containing  about  1100  buildings  were 
burned  over.  Of  these  buildings  the  greater  part  were  business  houses  con- 
taining goods  of  immense  value — grocery,  dry  goods,  and  commission  houses 
— and  the  spring  stocks  of  the  latter  had  just  been  laid  in.  The  fire  com- 
menced in  a  frame  building  at  the  corner  of  Second  and  Ferry  Streets,  and 
the  prevailing  strong  wind  urged  it  with  fearful  rapidity  through  the  city. 
So  short  was  the  time  between  the  discovery  of  the  flames  and  their  spread 
through  the  city,  that  many  persons  were  unable  to  save  any  of  their  house- 
hold goods,  while  others,  having  got  theirs  to  the  walk,  were  compelled  to 
flee  and  leave  them  to  be  seized  and  destroyed  by  the  element.  The  mer- 
chants were  equally  unsuccessful  in  saving  any  thing  from  their  warehouses. 
The  loss  was  estimated  at  $10,000,000. 

AT  ST.  LOUIS,  1849. 

Flames  broke  out  about  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  17th  of  May,  1849, 
on  the  steamboat  White  Cloud,  lying  at  the  leveee  between  Wash  and  Cherry 
Street*,  nearly  in  front  of  a  large  lard  factory.  The  wind  was  blowing  stiffly 
from  the  north-east,  forcing  the  boats  directly  into  the  shore.  The  Eudara 
and  Edward  Batet  soon  caught,  and  the  latter,  drifting  into  the  stream,  car- 
ried destruction  to  nearly  all  the  boats  lying  south  of  her.  In  half  an  hour 
ifter  the  fire  began  twenty-three  steamboats  had  fed  the  f  »ry  of  the  flames, 
ftnd  nearly  $500,000  worth  of  property  was  destroyed.  Spreading  to  the 


470  APPENDIX. 

• 

wharves,  where  a  large  quantity  of  hemp  was  stored,  the  whole  or  part  of 
fifteen  blocks  were  destroyed.  The  fire  lasted  till  between  six  and  seven 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth.  The  supply  of  water  had  given 
out  early,  a  strong  wind  was  blowing,  and  the  fire  companies,  working  with 
hand  engines,  were  entirely  powerless.  The  fire  involved  a  large  part  of 
the  business  portion  of  the  city,  and  almost  every  house  destroyed  was  owned 
by  those  who  were  either  wealthy  enough  themselves  to  build  up  their  prop- 
erty or  could  readily  obtain  means  to  do  it.  The  offices  of  the  Missouri 
Republican,  the  Reveille,  the  New  Era  and  the  Argus  were  burned,-  together 
with  two  or  three  job  printing  offices.  The  progress  of  the  devouring  ele- 
ment was  stayed  on  Market  Street  on  the  blowing  up  of  some  buildings  with 
powder,  whereby  a  prominent  citizen,  T.  B.  Targee,  was  instantly  killed 
and  two  or  three  others  were  seriously  injured.  The  number  of  steamboats 
destroyed  was  twenty-three,  which,  with  their  cargoes,  were  valued  at  $436,- 
000.  The  total  amount  of  property  lost  was  about  $3,000,000.  The  value 
of  the  stocks  of  goods  burned  was  about  $1,700,000,  of  which  about  $500,000 
was  not  covered  by  insurance.  Three  of  the  St.  Louis  insurance  companies 
were,  however,  broken  up. 

AT  PHILADELPHIA,  1850. 

A  conflagration  by  which  an  immense  amount  of  property  was  destroyed 
took  place  in  Philadelphia  on  the  9th  of  July,  1850.  It  began  about  four 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  in  a  store  at  78  North  Delaware  A  venue. 
The  fire  was  beyond  control  when  discovered,  and  soon  spread,  despite  the 
most  strenuous  efforts  to  prevent  it,  to  the  storehouses  adjoining.  When  the 
fire  had  reached  the  cellar  of  the  building  in  which  it  had  originated,  two 
explosions  occurred  which  rent  the  walls  of  the  building  and  threw  flakes 
of  combustible  matter  in  all  directions,  setting  fire  to  many  other  buildings. 
Delaware  Avenue  and  Water  Street  were  covered  with  persons  who  exhibited 
little  fear  at  these  evidences  of  dangerous  substances  being  stored  in  the 
building.  Suddenly  a  third  and  most  terrific  explosion  occurred,  by  which 
a  number  of  men,  women,  and  children  were  killed,  and  several  buildings  de- 
molished. This  disaster  caused  a  panic  among  the  firemen  and  spectators, 
and  in  the  efforts  of  all  to  escape  from  danger  many  were  trampled  upon  and 
injured.  Some  were  thrown  into  the  Delaware,  and  others  jumped  in  to  get 
away  from  the  falling  bricks  and  beams  sent  up  from  the  burning  building 
by  the  explosion.  The  number  of  persons  who  lost  their  lives  by  the  explo- 
sion was  about  thirty ;  nine  persons,  who  jumped  into  the  river  in  a  fright, 
were  drowned,  and  about  one  hundred  injured.  The  area  over  which 
the  fire  spread  contained  about  four  hundred  buildings.  Its  locality  waa 
one  of  the  most  densely  populated  in  the  city,  and  a  large  aumber  of 


APPENDIX.  471 

the  residents  having  been  poor  people,  the  suffering  caused  was  immense. 
The  loss  was  about  one  million  dollars  of  property. 

AT  SAN  FRANCISCO,  1851. 

The  city  of  San  Francisco  was  retarded  in  its  progress  toward  its  present 
proud  position  by  many  causes,  but  by  nolhing  more  than  fire.  The  most 
destructive  of  the  many  conflagrations  which  have  occurred  in  that  city  be- 
gan on  the  3d  of  May,  1851,  at  eleven  o'clock  p.  M.,  and  was  not  over- 
mastered until  the  5th  inst.  The -loss  that  was  caused  by  it  amounted  to 
$3,500,000,  and  it  destroyed  2500  buildings.  The  fire  began  in  a  paint-shop 
on  the  west  side  of  Portsmouth  Square,  adjoining  the  American  House. 
Although  but  a  slight  blaze  when  discovered,  the  building  was  within  five 
minutes  enwrapped  with  flames,  and  before  the  fire-engines  could  be  got  to 
work,  the  American  House  and  the  building  on  the  other  side  of  the  paint 
shop  were  also  burning.  The  buildings  being  all  of  wood  and  extremely 
combustible,  the  fire  spread  up  Clay  Street,  back  to  Sacramento,  and  down 
Clay  Street  toward  Kearney  with  fearful  rapidity.  Soon  the  fire  depart- 
ment was  compelled  to  give  up  every  attempt  to  extinguish  it,  and  to  confine 
their  work  to  making  its  advance  less  rapid. 

Pursuing  this  plan,  they  checked  the  flames  on  the  north  side  at  Dupont 
Street.  But  in  every  other  direction  it  took  its  own  course,  and  was  only 
arrested  at  the  water's  edge  and  the  ruins  of  the  houses  that  had  been  blown 
up.  The  shipping  in  the  harbor  was  only  protected  by  the  breaking  up  of 
the  wharves.  Thousands  of  persons  were-  made  homeless,  and  for  a  long 
time  after  lived  in  tents.  The  Custom-house,  seven  hotels,  the  Post-office, 
the  offices  of  the  Steamship  Company,  and  the  banking  house  of  Page,  Bacon 
&  Co.,  were  destroyed.  During  the  continuance  of  the  fire  a  number  of  per- 
sons were  burned,  and  others  died  from  their  exertions  toward  subduing  it. 

Another  large  fire  devastated  a  great  portion  of  San  Francisco  in  June, 
1851.  It  occurred  on  the  22d  of  that  month,  and  500  buildings  were  de- 
stroyed by  it.  The  loss  was  estimated  at  $3,000,000.  The  result  of  these 
fires  has  been  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  in  a  thoroughly  fire-proof  manner, 
only  second  to  that  of  Montreal,  which  learned  wisdom  through  similar 
adversity. 

AT  PHILADELPHIA,  1865. 

The  most  terrible  conflagration  of  which  Philadelphia  was  the  theater — 
after  that  of  July,  1850 — occurred  there  on  the  morning  of  February  8, 186£ . 
Like  its  predecessor,  it  brought  death  to  many,  and  in  the  most  horrible  and 
painful  manner.  The  fire  originated  among  several  thousand  barrels  of  coal 
oil,  that  was  stored  upon  an  open  lot  on  Washington  Street,  near  Ninth. 


472  APPENDIX. 

The  flames  spread  through  the  oil  as  if  it  had  been  gunpowder,  and  in  a  very 
short  time  2000  barrels  were  ablaze,  and  sending  a  huge  volume  of  flame 
and  smoke  upward.  The  residents  of  the  vicinity,  awakened  by  the  noise 
of  the  bells  and  firemen,  and  affrighted  by  the  glare  and  nearness  of  the  fire, 
rushed  in  their  night  garments  into  the  streets  that  were  covered  with  snow 
and  slush.  The  most  prompt  to  leave  their  homes  got  off  with  their  lives, 
but  those  near  the  spot  where  the  fire  commenced,  and  not  prompt  to  escape, 
were  met  by  a  terrible  scene.  The  blazing  oil  poured  into  Ninth  Street  and 
down  to  Federal,  making  the  entire  street  a  lake  of  fire  that  ignited  the 
houses  on  both  sides  of  the  street  for  two  blocks.  The  flames  also  passed  up 
and  down  the  cross  streets,  and  destroyed  a  number  of  houses.  The  fiery 
torch  was  whirled  back  and  forth  along  the  street  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
wind,  and  as  it  passed  destroyed  every  thing  in  or  near  its  course.  People 
leaving  their  blazing  homes,  hoping  to  reach  a  place  of  safety,  were  roasted 
to  death  by  it.  Altogether,  about  twenty  persons  were  roasted  in  the  streets 
or  houses.  Firemen  making  vain  endeavors  to  save  the  poor  creatures  from 
their  horrible  fate  were  fearfully  burned.  The  loss  of  property  amounted  to 
about  $500,000,  and  fifty  buildings  were  destroyed.  From  Washington  Street 
to  Federal,  on  Ninth,  every  building  was  burned. 

AT  CHICAGO,  1857,  '59,  '66,  '68. 

On  the  morning  of  the  10th  of  October,  1857,  a  fire  occurred  in  Chicago 
which,  though  notable  from  the  amount  of  property  destroyed  by  it,  was 
made  awful  by  the  loss  of  human  life  which  it  caused.  The  fire  broke  out 
in  a  large  double  store  in  South  Water  Street,  and  spread  east  and  west  to 
the  buildings  adjoining,  and  across  an  alley  in  the  rear  to  a  block  of  new 
buildings.  All  these  were  completely  destroyed.  When  the  flames  were 
threatening  one  of  the  buildings  a  number  of  persons  ascended  to  its  roof  to 
there  fight  against  them.  Wholly  occupied  with  their  work,  they  did  not 
notice  that  the  wall  of  the  burning  building  tottered,  and  when  warned  of 
their  danger  they  could  not  escape  ere  it  fell,  crushing  through  the  house  01 
which  they  were,  and  carrying  them  into  its  cellar.  Of  the  number  fourteen 
were  killed  and  more  injured.  The  loss  in  property  caused  by  the  fix* 
amounted  to  over  $500,000. 

A  fire,  the  most  disastrous  after  that  of  October,  1857,  took  place  on  Septem 
ber  15,  1859.  It  broke  out  in  a  stable,  and,  spreading  in  different  direction? 
consumed  the  block  bounded  by  Clinton,  North  Canal,  West  Lake,  and  Fultot 
Streets,  on  which  the  stable  was  situated.  From  this  block  the  fire  was  com' 
inunicated  to  Blatchford's  lead  works  and  to  the  hydraulic  mills,  whence  ii 
passed  to  another  block  of  buildings,  all  of  which  were  destroyed.  Thi 
total  loss  was  about  $500,000. 


APPENDIX.  473 

Property  to  the  amount  of  $500,000  was  destroyed  by  fire  on  the  10th  of 
August,  1866.  The  fire  originated  in  a  wholesale  tobacco  establishment  on 
South  Water  Street,  and  passed  to  the  adjoining  buildings,  occupied  by 
wholesale  grocery  and  drug  firms.  The  first  two  buildings  and  contents 
were  utterly,  while  the  other  was  but  partially,  destroyed. 

A  fire,  which  destroyed  several  large  business  houses  on  Lake  and  South 
Water  Streets,  took  place  November  18,  1866.  It  originated  in  the  tobacco 
warehouse  of  Banker  &  Co.,  and  the  loss  caused  by  it  was  about  $500,000. 

The  fire  which  occurred  on  the  28th  of  January,  1868,  was  the  most  de- 
structive by  which  Chicago  had  ever  been  visited.  It  broke  out  in  a  large 
boot  and  shoe  factory  on  Lake  Street,  and  destroyed  the  entire  block  on 
which  that  building  was  situated.  The  sparks  from  those  buildings  set  fire 
to  others  distant  from  them  on  the  same  street,  and  caused  their  destruction. 
In  all  the  loss  was  about  $3,000,000. 

AT  POKTLAND,  1866. 

The  terrible  fire  which  laid  in  ruins  more  than  half  of  the  city  of  Port- 
land, Maine,  commenced  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  4th  of  July, 
1866.  Beginning  in  a  cooper's  shop  at  the  foot  of  High  Street,  caused  by  a 
fire-cracker  being  thrown  among  some  wood  shavings,  it  swept  through  the 
city  with  frightful  rapidity.  With  difficulty  did  the  inhabitants  of  the 
houses  in  its  path  escape  with  their  lives.  Little  effort  was  made  to  save 
household  goods  when  this  saving  involved  a  possibility  of  death.  Every 
thing  in  the  track  of  the  flames  was  destroyed,  and  so  completely  that,  when 
they  had  been  overcome,  even  the  streets  could  hardly  be  traced.  For  a 
space  of  one  mile  and  a  half  long  by  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  there  seemed  a 
straggling  forest  of  chimneys,  with  parts  of  their  walls  attached.  The  utmost 
endeavors  of  the  firemen  of  the  city,  aided  by  those  from  other  cities  and 
towns,  were  of  little  avail  until  the  plan  of  blowing  up  had  been  carried  out. 
One-half  of  the  city,  and  the  one  which  included  its  business  portion,  was 
destroyed.  Every  bank  and  all  the  newspaper  offices  were  burned ;  and  it 
is  somewhat  singular  to  note  that  all  the  lawyers'  offices  in  the  city  were 
swept  away.  The  splendid  city  and  county  building  on  Congress  Street  was 
considered  fire-proof  and  safe,  and  was  filled  with  furniture  from  the  neigh- 
boring houses,  and  then  the  flames,  catching  it,  laid  it  in  ruins.  All  the  jew- 
elry establishments,  the  wholesale  dry  goods  houses,  several  churches,  the 
telegraph  offices,  and  the  majority  of  other  business  places  were  destroyed. 
The  Custom-house,  though  badly  burned,  was  not  destroyed.  Most  singu- 
larly, a  building  on  Middle  Street,  occupied  by  a  hardware  firm,  was  left 
unscathed  by  the  sea  of  flame  which  surged  and  devastated  all  around  it. 

40 


474  APPENDIX. 

Two  thousand  persons  were  rendered  houseless,  and  were  sheltered  in 
churches  and  tents  erected  for  them.  In  all,  the  loss  was  estimated  at 
$10,000,000,  which  was  but  in  small  part  covered  by-  insurance. 

VARIOUS  DISASTROUS  CONFLAGRATIONS. 

Norfolk,  Va.,  destroyed  by  fire  and  the  cannon-balls  of  the  British.  Prop- 
erty to  the  amount  of  $1,500,000  destroyed.  January  1,  1776. 

City  of  New  York,  soon  after  passing  into  possession  of  the  British ;  600 
buildings  consumed.  September  20,  21,  1776. 

Theater  at  Richmond,  Va.  The  governor  of  the  State  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  leading  inhabitants  perished.  December  26,  1811. 

Washington  City.  General  Post-office  and  Patent  Office,  with  over  ten 
thousand  valuable  models,  drawings,  etc.,  destroyed.  December  15,  1836. 

Philadelphia;  52  buildings  destroyed.     Loss,  $500,000.     October  4,  1839. 

Quebec,  Canada;  1500  buildings  and  many  lives  destroyed.  May  28, 
1845. 

Quebec,  Canada;  1300  buildings  destroyed.    June  28,  1845. 

City  of  New  York;  300  buildings  destroyed.  Loss,  $6,000,000.  June 
20,  1845. 

St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  nearly  destroyed;  6000  people  made  home- 
less. June  12,  1846. 

Quebec,  Canada;  Theater  Royal;  47  persons  burned  to  death.  June  14, 
1846. 

Nantucket;  300  buildings  and  other  property  destroyed.  Value,  $800,000. 
July  13,  1846. 

At  Albany;  600  buildings,  steamboats,  piers,  etc.,  destroyed.  Loss, 
$3,000,000.  August  17,  1848. 

Brooklyn ;  300  buildings  destroyed.     September  9,  1848. 

At  St.  Louis;  15  blocks  of  houses  and  23  steamboats.  Loss  estimated  at 
$3,000,000.  May  17,  1849. 

Frederickton,  New  Brunswick ;  about  300  buildings  destroyed.  November 
11,  1850. 

Nevada,  Cal.;  200  buildings  destroyed.  Loss,  $1,300,000.  March  12, 
1851. 

At  Stockton,  Cal.;  loss,  $1,500,000.    May  14,  1851. 

Concord,  N.  H.;  greater  part  of  the  business  portion  of  the  town  destroyed. 
August  24,  1850. 

Congressional  library  at  Washington;  35,000  volumes,  with  works  of  art, 
destroyed.  December  24,  1851. 

At  Montreal,  Canada;  1000  houses  destroyed.  LOBS,  $5,000,000.  July  8, 
1852. 


APPENDIX.  475 

Harper  Brothers'  establishment,  New  York.  Loss  over  $1,000,000.  De- 
cember 10-,  1853. 

Metropolitan  Hall  and  Lafarge  House,  New  York,  and  Custom  House, 
Portland,  Maine.  January  8,  1854. 

At  Jersey  City  ;  30  factories  and  houses  destroyed.    July  30,  1854. 

More  than  100  houses  and  factories  in  Troy,  N.  Y.;  and  on  the  same  day  <i 
large  part  of  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  destroyed.  August  25,  1854. 

At  Syracuse,  N.  Y.;  about  100  buildings  destroyed.  Loss,  $1,000,000. 
November  8,  1856. 

New  York  Crystal  Palace  destroyed.     October  5,  1858. 

City  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  almost  destroyed.     February  17,  1856. 

Santiago,  Chili;  Church  of  the  Compara  destroyed,  with  2,000  worshipers, 
mostly  women.  Conflagration  caused  by  fire  communicated  by  candles,  used 
in  illumination,  to  paper  decorations  about  the  walls.  December  8,  1863. 

FOREST  FIRES  OF  WISCONSIN  AND  MICHIGAN,  1871. 

At  almost  the  same  moment  when  the  great  Chicngo  fire  was  breaking  out, 
similar  disasters,  which  proved  even  more  fatal  to  human  life,  was  setting  in 
in  northern  Wisconsin.  The  worst  of  its  horrors  centered  in  the  unfortunate 
village  of  Peshtigo,  a  lumbering  settlement  on  Green  Bay.  The  scene  which 
occurred  there  is  thus  sketched  by  a  Wisconsin  journal : 

"Sunday  evening,  after  church,  for  about  half  an  hour  a  death-like  still- 
ness hung  over  the  doomed  town.  The  smoke  from  the  fires  in  the  region 
around  was  so  thick  as  to  be  stifling,  and  hung  like  a  funeral  pall  over  every 
thing,  and  all  was  enveloped  in  Egyptian  darkness.  Soon  light  puffs  of  air 
were  felt ;  the  horizon  at  the  south-east,  south,  and  south-west  began  to  be 
faintly  illuminated;  a  perceptible  trembling  of  the  earth  was  felt,  and  a 
distant  roar  broke  the  awful  silence.  People  began  to  fear  that  some  awful 
calamity  was  impending,  but  as  yet  no  one  even  dreamed  of  the  danger. 

"The  illumination  soon  became  intensified  into  a  lurid  glare;  the  roar 
deepened  into  a  howl,  as  if  all  the  demons  of  the  infernal  pit  had  been  let 
loose,  when  the  advance  gusts  of  wind  from  the  main  body  of  the  tornado 
struck.  Chimneys  were  blown  down,  houses  were  unroofed,  and,  amid  the 
confusion,  terror,  'and  terrible  apprehensions  of  the  moment,  the  fiery 
element,  in  tremendous  inrolling  billows  and  masses  of  sheeted  flame, 
enveloped  the  devoted  village.  The  frenzy  of  despair  seized  on  all  hearts ; 
strong  men  bowed  like  reeds  before  the  fiery  blast;  women  and  children,  like 
frightened  specters  flitting  through  the  awful  gloom,  were  swept  away  like 
autumn  leaves.  Crowds  rushed  for  the  bridge;  but  the  bridge,  like  all  else, 
was  receiving  its  baptism  of  fire.  Hundreds  crowded  into  the  river;  cattle 
plunged  in  with  them,  and  being  huddled  together  in  the  general  confusion 


476  APPENDIX. 

of  the  moment,  many  who  had  taken  to  the  water  to  avoid  the  flames  were 
drowned.  A  great  many  were  on  the  blazing  bridge  when  it  fell.  The  de- 
bris from  the  burning  town  was  hurled  over  and  on  the  heads  of  those  who 
were  in  the  water,  killing  many  and  maiming  others,  so  that  they  gave  up  in 
despair  and  sank  to  a  watery  grave." 

The  following  account,  by  an  intelligent  correspondent  who  traveled  ojrer 
the  burnt  district  after  the  fires,  is  the  fullest  and  most  circumstantial  that 
has  been  furnished,  and  we  give  it  entire: 

PESHTIGO,  WISCONSIN,  November  6,  1871. 

Some  ten  days  since,  I  started  out  for  the  purpose  of  writing  up  the  scenes 
and  incidents  connected  with  the  recent  destruction  of  this  section,  and 
although  so  much  time  has  elapsed,  I  now,  for  the  first  time,  am  enabled  to 
send  your  readers  any  thing.  This  was  not  in  consequence  of  there  not 
being  plenty  to  write  about,  but  because  I  had  previously  concluded  not  to 
write  a  line  until  after  personally  visiting  the  scene  of  devastation,  and 
forming  my  own  conclusions  from  actual  observation. 

At  Chicago  I  found  the  sub-committee  from  Cincinnati  appointed  to  visit 
this  section  and  report  the  condition  of  things  generally  ;  and  as  we  were  all 
bound  for  one  point,  we  concluded  to  join  forces,  and,  as  much  as  possible, 
travel  together.  A  night's  travel  brought  us  to  Milwaukee,  where  the  com- 
mitteemen  had  a  very  interesting  interview  with  the  mayor  of  that  city,  Har- 
rison Luddington,  Esq.,  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  prominent  business 
men  of  the  North-west,  who  furnished  very  much  information  of  impor- 
tance. From  Milwaukee  we  passed  on  to  Green  Bay,  a  fine  city  of  some 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  located  at  the  head  of  Green  Bay,  a  body  of  water 
some  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  long  and  from  fifteen  to  forty  miles 
wide.  At  Green  Bay  your  committee,  by  special  request,  met  Governor 
Fairchild,  Hon.  Mr.  Sawyer,  member  of  Congress  from  this  district,  General 
Bailey,  and  other  prominent  persons.  The  governor  could  not  find  words  to 
express,  in  behalf  of  his  people,  the  gratitude  they  all  felt  for  the  solid  evi- 
dences of  sympathy  shown  for  the  sufferers,  and  assured  your  committee 
that  the  gifts  of  Cincinnati  were  fully  as  large  as  from  any  other  section. 
The  interview  with  the  governor  ended  by  your  committee  concluding 
to  take  the  several  car-loads  of  goods  they  had  with  them  right  on  through 
to  Peshtigo,  and  know  for  themselves  that  the  sufferers  were  supplied  as  rap- 
idly as  possible,  and  not  have  the  much-needed  supplies  remain  in  the  va- 
rious warehouses  of  different  cities  until  all  the  forms  of  red  tape  could  be 
gone  through  with ;  for  if  the  goods  were  needed  at  all,  it  was  to  relieve  the 
more  pressing  demands  of  the  moment.  Taking  the  good  steamer  Geo.  L. 
Duulap  (I  believe  that  is  the  way  bills  of  lading  read),  after  a  very  pleasant 


APPENDIX.  477 

ride  of  sixty  miles  on  the  bay,  we  reached  Menominee,  the  point  from  which 
all  persons  start  out  to  visit  the  burnt  region.  Crossing  over  the  Menominee 
River,  we  reach  Marinette  and  Menekaune,  or,  rather,  what  is  left  of  the 
latter  place,  as  the  fire  almost  blotted  it  out  of  existence.  The  fire  came 
sweeping  through  the  forests  toward  these  towns,  threatening  destruction  to 
every  thing  in  its  path.  At  this  point  Mr.  A.  C.  Brown,  the  resident  partner 
of  one  of  the  large  mills  here,  ordered  out  all  his  men  and  teams  to  a  point 
where  a  street  had  been  cut  through  the  timber  a  short  time  previously. 
The  teams  hauled  water,  which  the  men  dashed  on  the  ground  and  trees; 
thus  for  fourteen  hours  successfully  keeping  back  the  flames  from  Marinette, 
until  all  danger  was  over.  While  the  men  were  working  here  the  fire 
quickly  passed  to  the  left,  and  in  a  few  minutes  almost  every  house  in 
Menekaune  was  in  flames.  These  included  two  large  mills,  a  fine  Catholic 
and  Methodist  Churches,  a  school-house,  and,  in  fact,  almost  every  house  in 
the  town.  When  the  dames  reached  the  river,  not  finding  any  thing  else 
to  devour,  with  one  bound  the  fire  jumped  over  the  water,  which  is  fully  as 
wide  as  the  Ohio  at  Cincinnati,  and  consumed  a  very  fine  mill.  The  wind 
now  abated,  to  which  fact  alone  can  be  attributed  the  saving  of  Menominee. 

SCENES  IN   THE   HOSPITJLL. 

The  main  hospitals  for  the  wounded  are  located  are  Marinette,  and 
through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Wright,  the  surgeon  in  charge,  I  visited  the 
premises,  and  saw  the  many  sad  sights  to  be  seen.  The  buildings  are  made 
of  rough  boards,  very  much  similar  in  appearance  to  the  barracks  of  the 
army.  The  interior  arrangements  were  made  as  comfortable  as  could  be  ex- 
pected under  the  circumstances.  The  first  patient  on  the  right  as  you  enter 
is  an  American,  who  has  with  him  his  wife,  babe,  and  five  other  children. 
Three  of  the  latter  are  half-breeds,  by  a  former  wife,  a  squaw  of  the  Stock- 
bridge  tribe,  whose  reservation  is  located  in  the  burnt  district.  The  story  of 
this  man  is  the  same  in  substance  as  that  of  a  score  of  others.  The  fire  ap 
proached  them  so  unexpectedly  that  they  had  to  run  for  their  lives  without 
saving  any  thing  but  the  clothes  they  had  on.  They  reached  a  small  pool 
of  water,  where  they  sat  for  many  hours,  or  until  the  fury  of  the  fire  had 
passed,  when,  terribly  burned  as  they  were,  they  managed  to  reach  help,  and 
were  brought  to  town  and  properly  cared  for.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  that 
while  the  half-breed  children  of  this  family  were  the  worst  burned,  they 
exhibited  the  stoical  indifference  to  pain  of  their  people,  while  the  other 
children,  all  white,  moaned  loud  enough  to  be  heard  all  over  the  room. 
The  next  patient— an  old  German,  seventy-six  years  of  age — was  from  the 
lower  bush  country.  He  lost  his  wife,  daughter,  son,  and  eight  grandchil- 
dren. The  old  man  bore  up  with  wonderful  fortitude  under  all  his  afflictions, 


478  APPENDIX. 

and  would  tell  you,  in  his  own  quiet  way,  all  about  the  fire,  until  he  came 
to  where  his  aged  partner  lost  her  life,  when  the  tears  would  roll  down  his 
furrowed  cheeks,  and,  with  clasped  hands,  he  would  say,  "Mine  Got!  is  my 
poor  frau  dead?"  We  pass  on  to  another  bed,  where  an  aged  lady  in 
writhing  in  the  greatest  pain,  undoubtedly  in  a  dying  condition.  She  is  the 
only  one  left  of  a  family  of  ten,  and  she,  too,  must  go,  blotting  out  from 
existence  one  large  family  which,  so  short  time  ago,  had  cause  to  feel  so 
nrich  promise  for  the  future.  The  next  three  beds  are  occupied  by  the 
Hoyt  family,  or,  at  least,  what  is  left  of  it,  some  half  a  dozen  of  them  hav- 
ing perished.  Those  here  are  all  badly  burned,  one  or  two  past  recovery. 
On  the  next  bed  is  one  of  the  half-breed  boys  before  referred  to.  He  is 
burned  on  the  abdomen  until  his  bowels  almost  protrude,  yet  he  never  com- 
plains, and  answers  your  questions  as  indifferently  as  if  he  was  a  disinter- 
ested spectator  of  the  scene.  The  next  is  a  double  bed,  occupied  by  two  full 
grown  men,  former  members  of  a  Wisconsin  regiment.  One  of  them,  Lovett 
Reed,  started  to  run'for  a  clearing,  but  finding  he  could  not  reach  it,  took 
out  his  pocket-knife  and  deliberately  attempted  to  commit  suicide  by  stab- 
bing himself  to  the  heart.  After  inflicting  several  severe,  though  not  fatal, 
wounds,  he  accidentally  dropped  his  weapon,  which,  owing  to  the  darkness, 
he  could  not  recover,  and  his  design  was  frustrated.  The  fire  passed  over, 
he  was  only  slightly  burned,  and  next  day  was  brought  into  the  hospital, 
where  he  is  slowly  recovering.  The  next  three  beds  are  occupied  by  a  Ger- 
man family,  or,  at  least,  what  is  left  of  it,  the  mother  and  one  child  having 
died  since  they  reached  the  hospital,  and  one  more  little  fellow  will  go  before 
many  hours.  These  children  are  quite  bright,  polite,  and  intelligent,  plainly 
showing  that  when  their  mother  passed  over  into  the  dark  valley  they  lost 
their  best  earthly  friend.  But  why  particularize  the  different  individual 
cases  where  there  are  so 'many?  There  are  now  nearly  three  hundred  of 
the  burned  in  Marinette  and  Menominee.  Most  of  them,  however,  are 
quartered  in  private  houses.  The  people  of  these  towns  were  very  prompt 
in  offering  relief,  opening  wide  their  doors  to  all  who  came  for  quarters  or 
assistance.  The  proprietor  of  the  leading  hotel,  the  Dunlap  House,  at  once 
vacated  all  his  rooms,  and  filled  his  hotel  with  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  I 
had  the  not  pleasant  lot  of  sleeping  in  a  bed  which  the  night  before  was  oc- 
cupied by  one  of  the  wounded,  and  which  was  still  covered  with  blood.  As 
these  were  the  best  quarters  to  be  had,  I  was  even  glad  to  get  in  here.  This 
morning,  a  fine  team,  the  property  of  Mr.  Brown,  was  at  the  door  ready  to 
take  us  down  to  Peshtigo,  a  town  which,  through  its  misfortunes,  now  has  a 
national  notoriety.  A  short  distance  out  we  reach  the  inner  limit  of  the 
fire  district,  and  from  there  to  this  place  every  thing  is  gone;  nothing  left, 
not  even  the  soil,  which  was  a  sort  of  peat.  The  tornado  took  the  great 


APPENDIX.  479 

forests  of  gigantic  nines  and  leveled  them  to  the  ground,  as  if  they  had  only 
been  blades  of  grass.  In  their  fall  the  gronnd  around  their  roots  was  torn 
up,  presenting  on  every  hand  great  barriers  of  earth,  forcibly  reminding  an 
old  soldier  of  earthworks  in  the  army.  Along  the  road  where,  before  the 
fire,  you  could  only  see  half  a  rod  to  the  right  or  left,  you  can  now  see  for 
miles  in  either  direction.  The  trees,  uprooted  and  twisted  by  the  terrible 
wind,  in  falling  have  so  interlocked  that  it  would  cost  much  more  to  clear 
the  charred  trunks  away  and  level  the  roots  than  the  land  is  worth,  which 
fact  adds  to  the  general  gloom.  Passing  ahead,  on  every  side  witne^ing  as 
sad  sights  as  the  human  mind  could  picture,  we  finally  reached  Peshtigo,  or, 
at  least,  where  it  once  stood.  The  town  was  located  on  both  banks  of  a 
river,  from  which  it  took  its  name ;  the  stream  being  about  one-half  as  wide 
as  the  Ohio.  As  you  enter,  on  the  left,  a  few  pieces  of  charcoal,  a  handful 
of  ashes,  and  a  few  bricks  show  all  that  remains  of  what  was  once  a  very 
fine  church;  three  rods  away  marks  the  spot  where  Ogden,  one  of  the 
millionaires  of  Chicago,  and  the  president  of  the  rich  Peshtigo  Lumber 
Company,  had  his  country  palace,  where  he  spent  his  summers. 

The  street  where  we  now  pass  along  was  lined  with  the  best  houses  of  the 
town.  Here  stood  the  fire-engine  house,  a  small  frame  structure  just  large 
enough  to  hold  a  steam  fire  engine.  The  cupola  was  of  open  wood-work,  but 
so  intense  was  the  heat  that  the  bell,  weighing  several  hundred  pounds,  was 
melted  up.  A  little  further  along  we  are  shown  where  a  train  of  platform 
cars  loaded  with  green  lumber  stood  at  the  time  of  the  fire,  all  of  which  w:is 
destroyed  excepting  the  iron  wheels,  which  are  partly  melted.  The  force  of 
the  tornado  w-as  so  great  that  one  car  load  of  the  lumber  was  carried  more 
than  one  hundred  feet,  where  it  burned.  Here  to  the  right  was  the  company 
store-house,  which  was  an  immense  building.  Jn  the  debris  we  find  upoons 
by  the  dozen,  all  melted  together,  stove-pipes  melted  into  balls  not  larger 
than  your  fist,  crockery,  china,  glass  and  hardware  all  run  together,  showing 
the  great  intensity  of  the  heat.  Some  hundreds  of  feet  to  the  right  and  renr 
of  the  lasi  ouilding,  stands  the  only  house  left  of  the  once  flourishing  town. 
The  house  had  a  gable  end  fronting  the  river,  with  an  ell  on  the  upper  side, 
and  was  not  finished.  The  fire  struck  the  ell,  which  was  destroyed  in  almost 
the  time  it  takes  me  to  tell  of  it,  but  such  was  the  velocity  of  the  wind  that 
after  the  wing  was  burned  off  the  fire  was  actually  blown  off,  passing  into  the 
timber  a  few  feet  away,  and  the  main  house  was  saved.  The  wooden-ware 
factory  is  also  on  this  side'  of  the  river,  and  was  the  largest  of  the  kind  in  the 
world.  It  was  some  five  hundred  feet  long,  by  half  as  great  a  width,  and 
five  stories  high.  The  section  of  the  house  in  which  the  engine,  boilers,  and 
machinery  were  located,  was  of  heavy  stones,  with  stone  and  grouted  floors, 
and  was  constructed  with  the  idea  that  it  was  positively  fire-proof.  The  littl* 


480  APPENDIX. 

remaining  of  it  is  conclusive  proof  that  it  went  up  in  smoke,  like  a  tinder- 
box.  Among  the  ruins  can  be  found  thousands  of  dozens  of  pail  and  tub 
hoops,  melted  together  like  so  much  lead. 

A  few  rods  down  the  river  from  this  building  were  a  number  of  boards  in 
the  river,  forming  a  platform  some  twelve  feet  square,  upon  which  twenty- 
eight  persons  got  for  safety.  After  the  fire  was  over,  they  discovered  that 
their  platform  was  buoyed  up  by  seventeen  barrels  of  benzine,  which,  fortu- 
nately, did  not  burst  and  ignite,  or  the  destruction  of  life  would  have  been 
frightful,  as  only  a  few  hundred  feet  below,  on  the  same  side  of  the  river, 
were  five  hundred  people  in  the  water,  and  the  benzine  on  fire  would  have 
floated  right  down  among  them,  and  it  is  my  judgment  that  every  one  of  them 
would  have  been  destroyed.  The  company  had  erected  a  fine  bridge  across 
the  river,  which  was  destroyed,  fortunately  after  most  of  the  people  had 
crossed  over  safely.  There  is  a  temporary  structure  in  its  place,  over  which 
we  pass,  and  stop  at  the  barracks,  where  we  find  Mr.  Burns,  the  company's 
agent,  who  extended  every  favor  in  his  power.  Being  a  man  of  fine  culture, 
his  description  of  the  fire  was  very  interesting.  I  suppose  that  he  took  more 
trouble  to  describe  things  minutely  to  me,  as  I  was  the  first  correspondent 
from  a  distance  who  had  personally  visited  the  town ;  the  other  vivid  de- 
scriptions in  other  papers  having  been  written  by  writers  of  great  imagina- 
tion, while  snugly  stowed  away  in  hotels  at  either  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  or 
Green  Bay.  In  this  number,  of  course,  are  not  be  included  the  writers  for  the 
two  or  three  weekly  papers  published  in  this  section  of  the  State.  Mr.  Burns, 
as  soon  as  the  fire  commenced,  put  on  the  hose,  and  had  the  water  thrown 
all  around  the  factories,  stores,  and  boarding-houses  belonging  to  the  com- 
pany. This  was  soon  abandoned,  as  the  brass  couplings  of  the  hose  were 
actually  melting  with  the  intense  heat.  Then  it  was  the  order  was  given  for 
every  man  to  look  out  for  himself,  and  Burns  ran  down  to  the  river's  edge, 
and  got  into  the  water.  Just  before  doing  so  he  met  a  friend  who  was  hat- 
less,  and  almost  at  the  same  moment  Burns'  dog  came  up  with  a  hat  in  his 
mouth,  which  was  given  to  the  needy  one.  The  strange  part  of  tlus  incident 
is  the  fact  that  the  dog,  a  water  spaniel,  had  been  locked  up  in  the  house, 
and  how  he  escaped,  or  what  induced  him  at  this  particular  moment  to  take 
a  hat  with  him,  none  could  tell. 

Burns  said  the  fire  came  creeping  slowly  up  the  main  street  on  the  side  of 
the  town  first  reached  by  fire,  went  up  the  front  door  of  the  Congregational 
Church,  hesitated  a  moment  at  the  door  knob,  then  quickly  reached  the  spire, 
and  in  three  minutes  every  house  in  town  was  on  fire,  and  in  one  hour  all 
that  remained  of  the  town  was  the  unfinished  house  before  alluded  to.  The 
feelings  of  the  hundreds  of  men,  women,  and  children  during  the  seven  fear- 
ful hours  they  remained  in  the  wa^er,  watching  the  terrific  progress  of  the 


APPENDIX.  481 

flames,  almost  perishing  from  the  heat  and  smoke,  can  better  be  imagined 
than  described.  When  the  fury  of  the  tempest  had  passed  by,  and  the  heat 
moderated  enough  to  allow  a  human  being  to  live,  it  was  found  that  almost 
all  of  those  in  the  water  were  so  benumbed  as  to  be  powerless,  and  it  took 
the  few  who  had  nerve  enough  left  a  considerable  length  of  time  to  assist  the 
others  to  land.  Their  situation  was  little  better  now  than  while  they  were 
in  the  water,  for  they  were  without  any  food  or  clothing,  with  the  roads  in 
every  direction  so  blockaded  with  fallen  timber  that  it  was  impossible  for  any 
of  those  who  were  able,  to  go  out  for  help.  Here  they  remained  all  that 
night  and  the  next  day;  yet  still  they  did  not  lose  confidence.  They  felt 
that  if  any*had  been  spared  they  would  surely  come  to  their  assistance,  — 
and  their  hopes  were  not  groundless,  for  toward  evening  one  of  the  ladies 
asserted  that  she  could  hear  the  sound  of  axes,  and  although  none  others 
could  hear  the  welcome  noise,  still  the  woman  with  her  keen  sense  would  not 
give  up.  After  awhile  others  heard  the  noise,  and  before  an  hour  had 
elapsed  a  few  of  the  more  daring  of  the  noble  men  of  Menominee  and 
Marinette  had  cut  their  way  through  the  terrible  six  miles  of  devastation, 
carrying  with  them  a  few  provisions  and  some  clothing,  and  before  the  sun 
went  down  wagons  of  stores  arrived  with  sufficient  to  make  all  comfortable. 
The  burned  were  taken  back  to  the  last  two  towns  in  the  empty  wagons,  and 
were  as  well  cared  for  as  the  sudden  emergency  would  permit.  The  next 
day  the  balance  of  the  population  went  to  the  different  towns  on  the  bay, 
where  they  were  kindly  attended  to.  To-morrow  I  go  down  to  the  Sugar 
Bush  country,  and  you  may  then  expect  another  letter.  W.  L. 

NEWBERBY'S  FARM,  November  7,  1871. 

My  letter  yesterday  described  the  situation  at  Peshtigo,  and  to-day  I  write 
you  from  the  Lower  Sugar  Bush  country,  the  most  desolate  part  of  the  burnt 
region. 

After  a  hearty  lunch  at  Peshtigo  we  again  started  on  our  tour  of  observa- 
tion, our  objective  point  being  what  is  known  as  the  Lower  Sugar  Bush, 
where  the  loss  of  life  was  far  greater  than  in  any  other  place.  A  few  hun- 
dred yards  out  from  the  town,  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the  road,  is  the  vil- 
lage graveyard,  where  we  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  an 


BURIAL. 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  the  red  faces  present,  all  of  whom  joined  in 
the  solemn  orgies.  The  deceased  was  a  leading  man  of  the  Stockbridge 
tribe,  and  had  passed  over  to  the  beautiful  hunting-grounds  of  his  fore- 
fathers after  a  lingering  illness.  The  body  was  placed  in  a  plain  box  coffin, 

41 


482  APPENDIX. 

which  also  contained  all  the  little  articles  belonging  to  the  deceased  during 
lifetime,  such  as  the  pipe,  knife,  clothes,  etc.  The  coffin  was  carried  by 
three  braves  and  a  like  number  of  squaws,  who,  with  heads  uncovered, 
were  constantly  repeating  short  Catholic  prayers,  as  all  aborigines  of  the 
Stockbridge  tribe  belong  to  that  church.  After  passing  around  the  grave 
several  tiifles,  the  coffin  was  finally  lowered,  the  grave  filled  up,  and  the 
spectators  departed,  the  squaws  to  the  left  and  the  men  in  the  opposite 
direction. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  most  graphic  writer  to  attempt  to  picture  the  utter 
desolation  of  the  scene  before  us.  It  was  our  good  fortune  to  have  in  company 
with  us  as  our  guide  Mr.  W.  P.  Newberry,  one  of  the  greatest  sufferers  by 
the  fire,  who,  being  thoroughly  acquainted  with  every  foot  of  the  ground 
over  which  we  traveled,  could  point  out  to  us  every  object  of  interest,  of 
which  there  are  any  number. 

SCHWARTZ,   THE   HERMIT. 

About  the  first  farm  out  from  Peshtigo  is  owned  by  a  one-eyed  German, 
who  is  known  the  country  round  as  Schwartz,  the  Hermit.  Some  twenty 
years  since,  when  this  region  was  an  unbroken  wilderness,  occupied  almost 
exclusively  by  Indians,  this  man  Schwartz  came  here,  built  a  cabin,  and  ever 
since  has  lived  entirely  alone,  apparently  caring  very  little  for  the  outside 
world,  or  for  what  other  people  thought  of  him.  At  that  time,  with  the 
exception  of  the  blind  eye,  Schwartz  was  a  splendid-looking  man,  and 
blessed  with  a  very  superior  education.  The  story  of  the  cause  of  hia 
abandoning  the  world  and  adopting  the  life  of  a  recluse  is  the  same  as  has 
been  told  thousands  of  times  before.  He  fell  in  love  with  a  handsome  girl — 
the  story  would  be  spoiled  if  she  was  not  beautiful — was  engaged  to  be  mar- 
ried, when  she,  like  too  many  others  of  her  sex,  proved  false,  and  married 
another  fellow,  a  major  in  the  Prussian  army.  This  was  too  much  for  our 
hero,  who  forthwith  fled  to  America,  and  found  consolation  for  his  blighted 
affections  in  the  solitude  of  these  pine  forests.  He  dug,  or,  rather,  burrowed, 
in  the  ground,  where  he  lived  with  his  chickens,  geese,  cats,  hogs,  and  dogs, 
presenting  as  happy  a  family  as  can  be  found  in  any  managerie  in  the  coun- 
try. Schwartz  has  been  very  thrifty  and  industrious  since  he  came  here,  and 
was  considered  very  wealthy,  many  even  asserting  that  he  had  gold  stored 
away  in  every  corner  of  his  filthy  abode.  When  the  fire  came,  Schwartz 
and  his  family  ran  down  to  Trout  Brook,  into  which  they  plunged,  and  re- 
mained until  the  fire  had  spent  its  fury.  The  hermit  has  already  commenced 
building  another  hut,  where  he  will  doubtless  spend  the  balance  of  his  days, 
little  heeding  what'takes  place  elsewhere. 


APPENDIX.  483 


DOWN   IN   THE   WELL. 

About  half  a  mile  beyond  Schwartz,  on  the  right,  and  about  two  hundred 
yards  from  the  road,  are  the  remains  of  a  dwelling  which  was  occupied  by 
a  family  named  Hill.  The  family  were  all  in  the  house  at  evening  prayers, 
when  they  were  suddenly  startled  by  a  loud  noise,  much  resembling  contin- 
uous thunder.  On  going  to  the  door  they  found  themselvos  entirely  sur- 
rounded by  fire,  and,  as  the  only  means  of  escape,  the  whole  of  them,  eight 
in  namber,  went  down  into  the  welL  Here  they  remained  in  safety  until 
the  wooden  house  covering  the  well  caught  fire,  fell  in,  and  burned  the  entire 
party  to  death.  Another  case  exactly  similar  to  the  last  was  that  of  the 
Davis  family  in  Peshtigo,  who  were  all  smothered  to  death  in  their  well, 
into  which  they  had  descended  in  the  vain  hope  of  saving  their  lives.  I 
have  heard  of  qtiiffe  a  number  of  such  cases,  but  as  the  facts  were  not  definitely 
given,  I  make  no  mention  of  them. 

THE  LAMP   FAMILY. 

A  short  distance  on,  we  come  to  a  low  stone  wall,  the  foundation  of  a 
house,  the  former  residence  of  a  family  named  Lawrence,  all  of  whom 
perished.  Immediately  in  front  of  this  place  was  the  iron-work  of  a  wagon, 
which  once  belonged  to  Chas.  Lamp.  Lamp  lived  about  a  mile  beyond,  and 
when  he  found  the  fire  approaching  his  house  so  rapidly,  he  hitched  up  his 
team,  and,  with  his  wife  and  five  children,  drove  with  all  speed  toward 
Peshtigo.  In  a  very  few  minutes  after  starting  he  heard  screams  in  the 
wagon,  and  looking  back,  found  that  the  clothes  of  his  wife  and  children 
were  all  ablaze;  it  was  certain  death  to  stop,  and  he  therefore  urged  his 
horses  to  still  greater  speed ;  but  before  moving  many  rods  one  of  the  horses 
fell,  and  finding  that  he  could  not  get  him  up,  and  seeing  that  all  of  his  fam- 
ily were  dead,  Lamp  started  to  save  his  life,  which  he  did  after  being  most 
horribly  burned.  He  is  now  in  the  hospital  at  Green  Bay,  and  is  slowly 
recovering.  When  at  the  latter  place,  I  saw  him,  and  had  a  full  narrative 
of  the  bloody  tragedy  from  himself.  What  little  was  found  of  the  charred 
remains  of  the  wife  and  five  children  were  buried  in  a  field  not  far  off.  Of 
the  wagon  not  a  speck  was  to  be  seen,  excepting  the  half-melted  iron-work. 

We  next  come  to  the  Lawrence  farm,  one  of  the  best  on  the  whole  route, 
showing  a  very  high  state  of  cultivation,  on  which  every  thing  had  been 
swept  away.  Lawrence,  with  his  wife  and  four  children,  ran  to  the  center  of 
an  immense  clearing,  several  hundred  yards  from  any  house  or  timber,  with 
the  idea  that  they  would  be  entirely  safe  there.  The  fire  came,  and  rushed 
along  OQ  every  side  of  them,  yet  they  remained  unharmed ;  at  this  wgiuent 


484  APPENDIX. 

one  of  the  great  balloons  dropped  in  their  midst,  and  in  an  instant  they 
were  burned  up,  hardly  any  thing  being  left  of  them. 

FIRE   BALLOONS. 

Your  readers  may  wonder  what  I  mean  by  fire  balloons,  and  I  confess  that 
I  hardly  know  myself,  and  only  use  the  term  because  it  was  so  frequently 
used  by  others  in  conversation  with  me.  All  of  the  survivors  with  whom  I 
conversed  said  that  the  whole  sky  seemed  filled  with  dark,  round  masses  of 
enioke,  about  the  size  of  a  large  balloon,  which  traveled  with  fearful  rapidity. 
These  balloons  would  fall  to  the  ground,  burst,  and  send  forth  a  most  brill- 
iant blaze  of  fire,  which  would  instantly  consume  every  thing  in  the 
neighborhood.  An  eye-witness,  who  was  in  a  pool  of  water  not  far  off,  told 
us  about  the  balloon  falling  right  down  on  the  Lawrence  family,  and  burning 
them  up. 

Passing  on  a  mile  or  more,  we  reach  the  edge  of  a  very  small  stream,  on 
the  bank  of  which  stood  the  stately  residence  of  Nathaniel  May,  one  of  the 
best  farmers  of  Northern  Wisconsin,  a  man  held  in  the  highest  estimation  by 
all.  At  the  time  of  the  fire  a  man  named  William  Aldous,  with  his  wife  and 
three  children,  residents  of  Western  New  York,  were  visiting  at  May's. 
The  first  intimation  that  any  of  them  had  of  the  danger  was  the  roaring  of 
the  flames  in  the  woods,  not  more  than  five  hundred  feet  away.  They  all 
rushed  out,  but  before  they  could  reach  the  water,  fifty  feet  off,  the  flames 
struck  them,  and  they  all  instantly  perished.  Mr.  Newberry,  of  our  party, 
with  his  family,  were  in  the  water,  not  more  than  one  hundred  feet  from 
May's,  and  all  they  heard  was  Mrs.  May  crying  out  to  her  daughter:  "  Lola, 
come  this  way ;  come  with  mother."  A  couple  of  days  afterward  the  burial 
party  from  Marinette  visited  the  May  farm,  and  found  the  remains  of  them 
all  close  together,  with  the  exception  of  the  little  girl,  who  was  some  distance 
off,  showing  that  in  the  darkness  she  had  accidentally  been  separated.  I  will 
have  more  to  say  about  the  brook  near  May's  house,  but  will  defer  until  I 
visit  the  Newberry  farms,  which  are  about  one  mile  further  on. 

Henry  Newberry,  a  citizen  of  Connecticut,  came  to  Wisconsin  some  fifteen 
years  ago,  with  his  family,  consisting  of  a  wife  and  six  children.  The  whole 
of  them  having  the  thrift  and  industry  for  which  the  Yankees  are  so  fa- 
mous, they  were  very  prosperous,  and  soon  acquired  nearly  a  thousand  acres 
of  land,  a  considerable  portion  of  which  they  cleared,  and  had  under  culti- 
vation. As  the  children  grew  up,  they  married,  and  had  allotted  to  the  a, 
foT  their  own  use,  their  portions  of  the  farm.  In  addition  to  this,  they  had 
joined  forces  and  built  a  very  good  mill,  where  all  of  them  were  employed. 
The  only  son  saved,  William  P.  Newberry,  was  one  of  our  party,  and  from 
hiu  own  lips  I  had  the  story  of  the  great  disaster.  This  gentleman  waa 


APPENDIX.  485 

formerly  a  teacher,  for  which  position,  by  education  and  habits,  he  is 
eminently  fitted.  Mr.  Ncwberry  being  a  man  of  unusual  nerve  and  sound 
judgment,  I  concluded  to  give  his  statement  of  the  fire  as  most  reliable. 

The  fire  had  been  burning  down  in  the  swamps,  some  miles  to  the  west, 
for  two  or  three  weeks.  But  little  was  thought  of  it,  as  it  traveled  only  a 
few  feet  in  a  day,  and  all  felt  confident  that  whenever  desirable  it  could  be 
:  fought  out "  in  a  few  hours. 

On  Sunday  night,  about  9  o'clock  (the  same  day  and  hour  the  Chicago  fire 
commenced),  they  heard  a  great  roaring,  and,  on  going  out,  Mr.  Newbtrry 
found  the  smoke  so  suffocating  as  to  be  almost  unbearable.  He  started  over 
to  his  brother's  house,  a  few  rods  oft',  to  see  what  must  be  done,  but  before  he 
had  gone  far,  was  forced  to  return  to  his  house.  The  noise  was  now  of  the 
most  appalling  character,  like  one  long  peal  of  thunder,  or  rapid  discharge 
of  heavy  parks  of  artillery.  The  rear  door  was  open,  and  it  was  only  by  the 
greatest  exertion .  that  it  was  closed,  which  was  no  sooner  done  than  the 
llames  blew  through  the  cracks  underneath,  clear  across  the  room.  Mr. 
Newberry  now  knew  that  the  only  safety  was  in  flight,  so,  taking  their  only 
child  in  his  arms,  and  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  her  sister,  they  all  fled, 
but  where,  they  knew  not.  At  last,  coming  to  the  creek  known  as  Little 
Trout,  they  found  a  pool  of  water  some  six  inches  deep,  about  twelve  feet 
wide  and  as  many  long;  and  being  totally  exhausted,  here  they  sat  down, 
with  their  backs  toward  the  fire.  In  an  almost  incredible  short  space  of 
time  the  fire  was  on  all  sides  of  them,  the  flames  from  May's  barn,  and  a 
heavy  log  bridge  which  spanned  the  creek,  in  which  they  were  sitting,  almost 
reaching  them.  Here  they  were  expecting  every  moment  to  perish  either  by 
being  burned  to  death,  or  suffocated.  Once  in  a  while  they  would  feel  a 
pleasant  breeze  from  the  bay,  when  they  would  inflate  their  lungs  to  their 
fullest  capacity,  and  then  breathe  as  little  as  possible  while  the  hot  air  was 
passing.  They  constantly  threw  water  over  themselves  to  keep  their  cloth- 
ing from  burning,  which  proved  effectual.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  babe, 
which  was  resting  in  its  father's  arms  in  the  water,  slept  the  entire  time,  over 
six  hours,  that  they  were  there.  When  the  fire  had  passed,  the  party 
crawled  up  on  the  side  of  the  creek,  and,  almost  chilled  to  death,  awaited  the 
approach  of  daylight.  A  little  later  they  heard  a  man  calling  for  help,  who, 
on  coming  to  them,  proved  to  be  Charles  Lamp,  their  neighbor,  mention  of 
whose  family  burning  to  death  in  the  wagon  has  already  been  made.  Lamp 
was  blind  and  powerless,  but  with  help  reached  *be  creek  bank.  As  soon  as 
it  was  light  enough,  Mr.  Newberry  started  out  to  see  what  had  become  of 
his  father,  brothers,  and  sisters.  A  short  distance  off  the  bank  of  the  creek 
were  the  bodies  of  two  men,  and  a  few  feet  further  on  the  carcases  of  several 
hogs  and  cows.  Finding  that  he  was  too  blind  to  go  on,  he  cut  off  sonic 


486  APPENDIX. 

meat  from  one  of  the  cows,  and  took  it  back  to  his  family,  when  they  cooked 
and  ate  it. 

Some  time  during  the  day  a  wagon  came  out  and  took  the  family  down  to 
Peshtigo,  where  they  received  attentions  from  the  Marinette  people.  The 
same  party  that  helped  this  gentleman  went  to  look  after  the  other  branches 
of  the  family.  One  brother  they  found  near  a  barn  wall,  a  hundred  yards 
away,  curled  up  around  a  stake,  dead.  Two  hundred  yards  off,  to  the  left, 
in  the  creek,  under  a  bridge,  they  found  Walter  Newberry,  his  wife,  and  three 
children,  and  some  distance  on,  alongside  the  road,  they  found  several  other 
members  of  the  'family.  The  father  was  also  lost,  but  his  remains  thus  far 
have  not  been  found,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  were  entirely  con- 
sumed. Thus,  out  of  a  family  of  seventeen  persons,  twelve  perished.  The 
mother  was  on  a  visit  to  her  daughter  at  Menominee,  or  she  also  would  have 
been  one  of  the  number  lost.  Near  the  ruins  of  Walter  Newberry's  house 
could  be  seen  the  iron-work  of  a  wagon,  remnants  of  a  trunk,  with  daguer- 
reotype frames,  buttons,  beads,  parts  of  breast-pins,  etc.,  showing  conclusively 
that  when  the  danger  was  discerned  the  family  had  loaded  their  trunks  into 
their  wagon  and  started  off,  but  had  only  proceeded  a  few  feet  when  they 
were  forced  to  abandon  the  wagon,  and  flee  down  the  road  to  the  spot  where 
their  bodies  were  found. 

As  we  went  around  with  Mr.  Newberry,  and  he  pointed  out  to  us  the 
various  places  on  the  farm — spots  which  now  have  a  holy  remembrance  to 
him — we  could  not  but  feel  how  sad  must  be  his  thoughts.  All  the  bodies  of 
his  family  are  buried  on  the  farm,  six  in  one  place,  and  ten  in  another,  four 
of  the  latter  belonging  to  another  family.  In  this  place  I  can  not  forbear 
mentioning  a  singular  fact  which  our  party  noticed  while  standing  and  look- 
ing at  the  little  pool  of  "water  where  the  Newberry  family  were  saved.  All 
over  it  were  small  dead  trout  floating,  which  had  been  boiled  to  death  by  the 
action  of  the  heat  on  the  water.  We  secured  some  of  these  boiled  fish  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  them  to  our  citizens. 

THE  CHURCH  FAMILY. 

Opposite  where  the  Newberry  house  stood  could  be  seen  the  debris  marking 
the  spot  where  had  stood  the  residence  of  John  Church,  the  village  black- 
smith, a  man  respected  by  all.  His  household  consisted  of  himself,  wife,  and 
son,  the  latter  a  young  man  just  of  age.  When  the  hurricane  of  fire  came, 
the  old  man  and  wife  appeared  to  despair,  but  the  son  started  on  the  race  for 
life  to  save  himself.  He  hnd  only  ran  about  ten  rods,  when,  finding  escape 
impossible,  he  deliberately  took  out  his  knife  and  cut  his  throat  from  ear  to 
ear,  dying,  as  was  supposed,  almost  instantly.  The  only  living  tree  or  plant 
to  be  seen  ill  all  this  region  are  two  or  three  strawberry  plants,  on  Mr.  New- 


APPENDIX.  487 

berry's  farm,  which,  on  account  of  the  direction  of  the  wind,  or  from  some 
other  cause,  were  not  burned.  Mr.  Newberry,  in  describing  the  fire,  said 
that  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  elements  were  on  fire  with  fervent  heat.  The 
flames  were  rolling  along  hundreds  of  feet  high  above  the  tops  of  the  high- 
est trees,  and  seemed  to  travel  with  lightning  speed.  I  am  not  surprised 
at  any  opinion,  however  exaggerated,  but  for  my  own  part  concluded  that 
there  was  not  any  outside  influence  at  work.  The  fire,  which  had  been  burn- 
ing for  weeks  in  the  marshes,  suddenly  fanned  into  power  by  th«  force  of  the 
tornado,  reached  the  heavy  pine  timber,  which,  as  is  well  known,  contains  a 
large  percentage  of  resinous  matter,  and  as  it  was  carried  along,  gained  such 
a  momentum  that  it  doubtless  did  appear  that  the  very  heavens  were  being 
consumed,  causing  many,  even  intelligent  persons,  to  conclude  that  the  day 
of  judgment,  the  hour  of  complete,  total  destruction  was  at  hand. 

To  the  west  of  the  Newberry  settlement  were  many  very  fine  farms,  and 
of  ill  the  persons  who  lived  in  that  direction,  for  about  five  miles,  hardly  one 
\wis  saved.  It  seemed  to  matter  little  whether  they  lived  near  the  timber  or 
in  the  center  of  large  clearings,  their  doom  was  the  same. 

In  the  westerly  and  southerly  direction,  or  the  point  from  which  the  fire 
started,  every  thing  is  burned  up  for  some  twelve  miles  in  length,  and  as  far 

in  breadth. 

A  PATH  THROUGH  THE  FIRE. 

In  returning,  about  a  mile  to  the  north  we  came  to  Adnah  Newton's  farm, 
where  sixteen  persons  were  burned  to  death.  As  soon  as  Newton  saw  the 
fire  he  started  out  to  see  what  was  best  to  be  done.  Running  down  to  the 
road,  he  found  himself  headed  off  by  the  flames.  Turning  back,  he  saw  his 
family  and  workmen  in  the  yard  coming  toward  him,  but  when  they  noticed 
him  turn  back  they  also  changed  their  course;  in  an  instant  more  they  were 
all  on  fire,  and  must  have  perished  in  a  moment.  Newton  happened  to  notice 
on  his  right  what  proved  to  be  a  path  through  the  flames,  about  fifty  yards 
wide,  for  which  he  rushed,  and  continued  for  three-fourths  of  a  mile,  when  he 
came  to  a  house  still  occupied  by  several  persons.  They  all  invited  him  to  come 
into  the  house,  but  he  declined,  saying  he  would  rather  trust  to  being  saved  in 
a  small  pool  of  water  close  by.  In  another  instant  the  house  was  on  fire,  and 
before  the  inmates  could  get  to  him  they  were  all  burned  to  death,  while 
Newton  escaped  pretty  well  singed.  I  had  a  long  conversation  with  Newton, 
and  he  declared  that  he  had  no  hankering  after  another  such  race.  The 
second  day  after  the  fire  thirty-three  remains  were  found  on  these  three 
farms. 

Not  far  from  where  Newton  saved  himself  was  a  field,  into  which  two 
bears  and  several  deer  had  fled  for  safety ;  but  they  exhibited  very  little  of 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  as  they  all  smothered  to  death  together,  the 


488  APPENDIX. 

bears  not  even  taking  time  to  take  a  lunch  of  deer  meat  before  their  de- 
parture. 

The  Doyle  family  consisted  of  the  husband  and  father,  Patrick,  the  wife, 
and  seven  children.  The  fire  came,  and  not  one  single  trace  of  any  of  them 
could  be  found,  excepting  a  Catholic  medal,  some  nails  out  of  a  pair  of 
shoes,  and  some  hooks  and  eyes.  Of  their  bodies  not  one  single  thing  was 
left,  not  even  the  ashes  of  their  bones.  Next  to  the  Doyles  lived  the  Pratt 
family,  all  of  whom  perished,  excepting  a  small  boy,  who  saved  himself  by 
jumping  into  the  well.  When  the  burial  party  arrived,  they  found  the  large 
Newfoundland  dog  watching  by  the  body  of  his  mistress,  and  it  was  only  by 
force  that  they  could  drive  him  away  long  enough  to  bury  the  corpse.  The 
Hill  family,  consisting  of  ten  persons,  lived  near  by.  They  had  working  for 
them  a  half-grown  Indian  boy,  who  was  ordered  down  to  hitch  up  the  team. 
The  barn  getting  on  fire,  the  master  ordered  him  to  return.  Not  coming  as 
last  as  Hill  desired,  the  order  was  repeated  in  a  more  peremptory  manner, 
when  the  Indian  looked  up,  and  said:  "It's  every  body  for  himself  now," 
and  off  he  started  with  the  speed  of  a  deer.  Bushing  through  the  fire,  he 
reached  a  clearing  half  a  mile  away,  and  was  saved,  while  the  entire  Hill 
family  perished. 

THE   ONLY   HOUSE   LEFT. 

In  the  entire  Upper  Bush  country  there  is  only  one  house  left,  the  home 
of  "old  man"  Place.  Many  years  ago  this  man  settled  here,  soon  afterward 
marrying  a  squaw,  by  whom  he  has  had  many  children.  He  has  always 
engaged  in  trading  with  the  Indians,  who  have  had  his  house  as  their  head- 
quarters. When  the  fire  came  about  twenty  Indians  covered  his  house  with 
their  blankets,  which  they  kept  wet  down,  thus  saving  the  house.  One  great 
big  fellow  stood  at  the  pump  for  nine  hours,  showing  an  endurance  possessed 
by  very  few  white  men.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  that  while  there  are  about 
as  many  Indians  as  whites  in  this  section,  at  least  one  thousand  of  the  latter 
perished  and  not  a  single  Indian.  This  nifty  seem  strange,  but  was  vouched 
for  by  the  very  best  persons  here.  Whether  the  Indians  could  smell  the  fire 
sooner  than  their  more  refined  white  brethren  and  escaped  in  time,  I  know 
not;  but  I  do  know  that  they  were  all  saved.  And  the  only  ones  I  heard 
of  being  injured  were  the  half-breed  children  I  spoke  of  in  my  last  letter. 
To-morrow  I  travel  in  the  further  Bush  region.  W.  L. 

SPEAKS'  PLACE,  WISCONSIN,  November  9,  1871. 

• 

Yesterday,  when  I  wrote  from  Newberry's  Farm,  the  weather  was  as  pleas- 
ant as  could  be  desired,  and  to-day  a  cold  norwester  makes  a  heavy  overcoat 
very  acceptable.  As  many  of  your  readers  may  not  understand  why  this  is 
called  the  Sugar  Bush  country,  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  that  there 


APPENDIX.  489 

are  many  Swedes  and  Norwegians  residing  in  this  section,  who  give  the  name 
"Sugar  Bush"  on  account  of  the  large  forests  of  maples  to  be  found  here, 
while  in  every  other  direction  are  only  pines  and  cedars.  At  Peshtigo 
center  three  roads ;  the  left  hand  one  leads  to  the  Lower  Sugar  Bush,  the 
center  one  to  the  Middle,  and  the  third  to  the  Upper  Sugar  Bush,  and  it  is 
from  the  latter  that  I  now  write. 

This  farm  was  owned  by  a  Mr.  Louis  E.  Spear,  an  excellent  citizen,  who, 
with  his  wife  and  two  children,  perished  while  attempting  to  escape  from  the 
fearful  blast.  They  only  reached  a  point  a  few  hundred  yards  from  their 
house,  when  they  fell  to  rise  no  more,  while  two  Indians,  who  were  at  the 
house  when  the  tire  commenced,  saved  themselves  by  getting  into  a  small 
creek,  whith  is  to  be  seen  a  short  distance  off  on  the  opposite  side.  They 
had  their  woolen  blankets,  which  they  threw  over  their  heads  and  kept 
wetted  down.  That  this  would  preserve  them  seems  very  strange,  as  the  fire 
in  the  timber  was  not  more  than  twenty  feet  off  from  where  they  sat,  and  the 
intensity  of  the  heat  was  so  great  that  a  stove  in  a  house  not  more  than  three 
rods  away  was  melted. 

The  Penegree  farm  was  the  next  one  we  visited,  where  the  destruction  is 
fully  as  great  as  in  every  other  quarter — every  thing  is  gone,  one  total  wreck — 
not  a  house,  barn,  fence,  or  tree,  nay,  not  even  the  soil  itself  being  left.  The 
Upper  Sugar  Bush  was  not  so  thickly  populated  as  the  Lower,  but  the  farms 
were  fully  as  well  cultivated,  and  as  much  thrift  shown  as  elsewhere,  but 
now  all  the  people  are  gone,  the  scene  one  picture  of  desolation,  not  a  shrub, 
not  even  a  blade  of  grass  growing.  We  now  come  to  a  farm  that  was  occu- 
pied by  Philip  Weinhardt,  wife,  and  five  children,  a  real  good,  solid,  subs'an- 
tial  German  family.  The  first  warning  any  of  them  had,  was  the  low, 
rumbling  noise  heretofore  described.  The  wife  went  to  the  door,  found  fire 
on  every  side  of  them,  and  believing  the  day  of  judgment  was  at  hand,  with- 
out an  effort  to  save  themselves,  they  all  perished.  This  idea  of  final  disso- 
lution was  entertained,  not  by  the  ignorant  only,  as  the  most  intelligent 
thought  that  the  noise  they  heard  was  the  echo  of  Gabriel's  trumpet.  Mr. 
Beebe,  the  Peshtigo  Company's  Agent,  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  fire,  declared 
that  the  last  hour  had  come,  and,  although  repeatedly  requested  to  save  him- 
self, refused  to  do  so,  and  perished  without  an  effort  to  get  away.  The  last 
eeen  of  him,  he  was  in  his  front  door,  with  hands  clasped,  exclaiming: 
"  Great  God,  Thy  will  be  done ;  to  Thee  I  intrust  my  soul."  In  the  center 
of  a  large  sandy  field,  hundreds  of  yards  from  any  timber  or  house,  stood  a 
stump,  which  was  entirely  destroyed,  down  even  into  the  roots,  leaving  the 
ground  like  just  so  much  honey-comb:  A  few  rods  off  was  the  carcass  of  a 
cow,  with  the  bell  which  had  been  around  her  neck  lying  near  by,  in  a  half- 
melted  condition.  All  of  your  readers  have  undoubtedly  visited  houses 


490  APPENDIX. 

which  have  been  totally  destroyed,  and  noticed  the  stoves  and  other  articles 
of  iron  in  the  cellars,  all  of  which  were  in  good  condition,  excepting  they 
were,  perhaps,  warped  or  discolored,  but  I  doubt  whether  they  ever  saw  such 
things  melted — a  sight  to  be  seen  here,  wherever  the  debris  of  a  house  is  to  be 
found,  the  iron  of  the  stoves,  and  even  the  wrought-iron  pipe,  being  melted 
up.  In  one  cellar,  I  think  that  of  a  house  formerly  occupied  by  the  Car- 
rough  family,  I  found  three  smoothing-irons  melted  together,  so  as  to  all  lift 
out  and  adhere  together;  this  was  one  of  the  finest  specimens  to  be  found 
anywhere. 

DUTCH  PLUCK. 

We  next  come  to  a  farm,  the  property  of  a  real  honest-looking  German, 
who  had  the  good  fortune  to  save  all  of  his  family,  and  his  team,  bvit  every 
thing  else  was  gone.  Leaving  his  wife  and  family  to  live  on  the  roasted  po- 
tatoes to  be  found  in  the  cellar,  after  two  days'  extraordinary  exertions,  he 
made  his  way  down  to  Menominee,  where  he  purchased  a  saw,  hatchet,  nails, 
and  some  lumber,  and  made  his  way  back  home,  where  he  arrived  in  one  day, 
the  road  having  been  partially  cleared  by  the  workmen  of  the  Peshtigo 
Company.  He  at  once  made  a  cabin  about  the  size  of  a  common  pig-pen, 
where  that  night  the  good/rau  gave  birth  to  another  son.  This  did  not  deter 
Hans  from  traveling  on  in  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  for  he  has  already  a 
good  comfortable  house  nearly  built,  and  with  the  clothing  and  provisions 
furnished  by  the  committee,  he  says  he  can  keep  his  head  afloat  until  next 
harvest.  The  innocent  little  Teuton  which  last  made  his  entry  into  the 
world,  has  a  fiery  red  head,  which  might  be  attributed  to  the  action  of  the 
heat,  were  it  not  that  both  the  father  and  mother  have  heads  as  red  as  little 
Myers'  face. 

A  LONELY  FUNERAL. 

Passing  around  the  road,  we  come  to  a  country  cemetery,  where  we  see  a 
half-grown  boy  busily  engaged  in  digging  some  graves.  Going  up  to  him, 
we  enter  into  conversation,  and  find  that  he  is  the  only  survivor  of  a  family 
of  ten,  all  the  rest  having  perished  in  the  fire,  the  boy  having  saved  himself 
by  getting  down  a  deep  well,  and  covering  his  head  with  a  blanket  which  he 
kept  wet.  The  Marinette  burial  party  had  buried  this  family  in  rude  boxes, 
on  the  spot  where  the  bodies  were  found,  but  this  son,  with  a  devotion  rarely 
equaled,  disinterred  the  bodies,  and  put  them  into  good  plain  coffins,  which 
he  made  himself,  and  then  carried  them,  one  at  a  time,  on  his  shoulder  to 
the  cemetery,  a  distance  of  nearly  one  mile.  When  the  young  fellow  men 
tioned  the  names  of  his  family  his  eyes  would  fill  with  tears,  and  he  would 
say,  "  What  am  1  to  do  in  the  world  all  alone?  " 


APPENDIX.  491 

In  this  Bush  lived  a  great  many  French  families,  all  of  whom  were  in 
comfortable  circumstances,  and  hardly  one  of  them  escaped  from  the  fury  of 
the  blast.  Just  beyond  the  cemetery  was  a  stone  wail,  at  least  one  full  mile 
from  the  nearest  timber  in  the  direction  from  which  the  fire  came,  yet  so 
intense  was  the  heat  that  the  stones  cracked  into  minute  pieces,  and  in  many 
places  the  sandstones  actually  melted,  leaving  a  glazed  surface,  something  like 
pottery  ware.  Near  here  the  road  is  quite  sandy,  and  the  surface  melted 
down,  leaving  a  crust  on  the  face  of  a  glassy  nature.  Wherever  the  sand 
was  blown  against  the  trees,  the  wood  presented  a  smooth  appearance,  just 
«e  if  it  had  been  covered  with  melted  glass.  As  we  ride  along  we  are  greeted 
with  the  sight  of  a  fine  buck  which  crossed  the  road  only  a  short  distance 
ahead  of  us,  and  when  about  five  rods  from  the  road  quietly  stopped,  and 
stood  eyeing  us  as  we  passed  by.  I  did  not  wish  the  lonesome  fellow  any 
harm,  but  I  must  confess  that  I  saiif  to  myself  that  I  would  willingly  pay 
for  the  chSmpagne  if  Joseph  Glenn,  the  partner  of  the  "  truly  good  man," 
could  have  been  with  us  with  his  pups  and  gun.  Perhaps  the  deer  would 
then  have  been  in  as  little  danger  as  he  was  from  us. 

Leaving  the  "  hard  wood  "  country,  we  enter  where  only  a  short  time  ago 
were  vast  forests  of  huge  pines,  fully  as  large  as  any  I  have  ever  seen  except- 
ing in  Oregon.  The  trees  are  now  mostly  uprooted,  and  leveled  with  the 
ground,  presenting  as  complete  an  abattis  as  could  be  desired  by  the  most 
skillful  military  commander.  I  could  go  on  and  give  any  number  of  sights 
to  be  seen  in  this  desolated  country,  but  as  they  are  only  repetitions  of  what 
has  already  been  written,  therefore  content  myself  by  saying  that  after  pass- 
ing through  many  miles  of  barren  territory,  where  all  was  once  prosperous, 
we  return  to  Menominee,  ready  to  visit  the  Peninsula  and  Michigan,  where 
the  fires  were  fully  as  severe  as  in  this  section. 

WHAT   SUPPLIES   ARE   NEEDED. 

I  know  not  of  any  better  place  to  speak  of  the  supply  question  than  the 
present  When  the  first  cry  for  assistance  went  forth  the  people  all  over  the 
land,  in  their  excitement,  sent  here  whatever  came  first.  This  fact  is  notice- 
able in  any  of  the  general  supply  rooms,  such  as  the  one  at  Green  Bay.  When 
we  visited  them,  we  found  some  twenty  of  the  first  ladies  of  the  town,  headed 
by  Mrs.  Colonel  Chas.  D.  Robinson,  their  Chairman,  busily  engaged  assort- 
ing the  clothing;  and  such  an  assortment.  Did  the  world  ever  see  the  like? 
There  was  Horace  Greeley's  famous  hat,  without  crown  or  rim,  several  cart- 
loads of  odd,  worn-out  shoes,  an  unlimited  quantity  of  antique,  used-up  sum- 
mer clothing,  just  the  thing  for  people  where  the  thermometer  often  falls  to 
fifteen  and  twenty  degrees  below  zero.  One  of  the  beautiful  ladies  engaged 
in  matching  the  odd  shoes,  said  that  "  it  reminded  her  of  playing  '  Old  Maid' 


492  APPENDIX. 

with  one  of  the  cards  gone."     I  wondered  at  the  time  whether  the  card  she 
referred  to  was  the  wedding  card. 

Of  such  useless  stuff  enough  has  already  been  sent  to  start  all  the  "  Cheap 
Johns"  in  business  to-be  found  throughout  the  country.  And  whenever 
second-hand  clothing  is  sent,  it  is  advisable  to  have  it  washed  first,  as  it  h:is 
to  be  handled  by  ladies,  who,  not  being  accustomed  to  the  work,  are  not  par- 
tial to  the  effluvia  arising  from  aged  perspiration.  What  is  really  needed  is 
good,  warm,  serviceable  underwear  for  the  ladies  and  children,  and  glovea 
and  underwear  for  the  men,  who  have  to  work  out  in  the  forests  chopping 
timber  and  hauling  logs.  So  far  as  money  is  concerned,  it  is  better  to  keep 
it  home,  and  save  it  until  spring  time,  when  farming  implements,  provisions, 
seed,  grain,  etc.,  will  be  wanted,  none  of  which  any  of  the  farmers  now  have. 
In  fact,  the  real  suffering  is  yet  to  come,  after  the  first  rush  of  sympathy  has 
gone  by  and  the  real  substantial  are  ifceded. 

TOO   MUCH   COMMITTEE. 

I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  many  of  the  leading  citizens  of  all  the 
places  in  the  North-west  where  committees  have  been  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  relieving  the  sufferers  by  the  fire,  and  I  must  say  that,  after  a  full  investi- 
gation, I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  too  much  committee  en- 
tirely, and  that  the  work  would  have  been  pushed  through  more  rapidly  had 
fewer  persons  been  held  responsible  for  the  task. 

As  it  was,  boxes  and  bundles  from  every  section  of  the  land  came  pouring 
in,  directed  to  almost  every  town  in  the  State,  just  as  if  Wisconsin  was  the 
size,  of  "Little  Khody,"  instead  of  a  vast  State.  To  distribute  these  gifts, 
committees  of  the  eminently  respectable  gentlemen  were  organized,  who 
went  to  work  in  their  old-fashioned,  even-tempered  way,  while  the  poor 
sufferers  were  shivering  with  cold  and  empty  in  stomach.  The  snap,  the 
fire,  the  energy  having  long  since  left  these  gentlemen,  it  was  soon  found  that 
things  were  not  working  smoothly  and  forcibly  as  desirable,  and  in  many 
instances  new  men  of  undoubted  "push-aheaditiveness"  were  selected,  and 
went  to  work  right  at  the  marrow  of  the  question,  cutting  red  tape ;  and 
when  a  poor  wretch  came  pleading  for  clothing  to  keep  him  warm,  at  once 
giving  it  to  him.  This  new  deal  has  been  productive  of  much  good,  and 
saved  a  vast  quantity  of  suffering.  For  my  part,  I  can  not  see  any  sense  in 
directing  any  supplies  for  the  Wisconsin  sufferers  to  any  point  south  of 
Green  Bay,  which  is  on  the  southern  border  of  the  burnt  region,  and  whose 
citizens,  with  one  will,  are  doing  all  they  can  to  alleviate  the  misfortunes  of 
the  unfortunates.  They  are  a  whole-soul  people,  who,  without  compensa- 
tion, are  doing  a  grand  work.  All  they  need  are  the  goods,  and  they  will 
see  that  only  the  deserving  get  any  thing.  As  an  evidence  of  the  good  work 


APPENDIX.  493 

they  are  doing,  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  say  that  the  nohle-hearted  ladies 
have  already  made  preparations  for  the  taking  care  of  the  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  children  made  orphans  by  the  fire.  This  will  save  these  chil- 
dren from  being  cuffed  about  in  the  cold  and  cruel  world,  and  be  the  means 
of  making  them  good,  useful,  and  educated  people.  I  hope  that  the  char- 
itable every-where  will  assist  these  ladies  in  their  commendable  enterprise — 
an  undertaking  of  the  noblest  character.  To-morrow  I  go  over  to  the  penin- 
si.la  and,  if  not  too  much  occupied  with  other  things,  may  write  again. 

W.  L. 

Another  account  says : 

"You  can  imagine  a  beautiful  and  thriving  village,  with  its  immense 
manufactories  and  busy  life,  now  a  waste  of  sand,  deserted.  The  carcasses 
of  fifty  horses  lay  in  regular  rows  as  they  had  stood  in  their  stalls,  with 
scarcely  a  vestige  of  the  building  remaining.  The  people  only  had  ten 
minutes'  warning  of  the  hurricane  of  fire,  and  no  time  to  comprehend  the 
situation.  They  rushed  into  the  streets  and  started  for  the  river,  but  were 
overtaken  by  the  storm  of  fire,  and  fell  in  the  middle  of  the  streets.  One 
man,  carrying  his  wife,  approached  the  river,  but  the  blast  drove  him  over 
some  obstruction,  and,  falling,  he  was  separated  from  her.  He  picked  up  a 
woman,  supposing  her  to  be  his  wife,  carried  her  into  the  river  and  saved 
her.  It  proved  to  be  another  man's  wife  and  his  own  was  lost.  One-  man 
was  sick  with  the  typhoid  fever;  a  young  man  stopping  with  him  took  the 
sick  man  out  back  of  the  house  and  buried  him  in  the  sand.  He  was  saved, 
and  is  fapidly  gaining  his  health. 

The  half  has  not  been  told ;  the  whole  will  never  be  known.  The  loss  of 
life  increases  every  hour.  On  Friday  last  twenty-six  dead  bodies  were  found 
in  the  woods,  and,  on  Saturday,  thirty-six.  The  woods  and  fields  are  liter- 
ally full  of  dead  bodies,  and  many  were  burned  entirely  up.  We  found 
some  teeth,  a  jack-knife  and  a  slate  pencil.  It  must  have  been  all  that  re- 
mained of  a  promising  Ixiy.  Truly  in  this  case  the  darkness  preceded  the 
light.  On  Sunday  night,  October  9th,  just  after  the  churches  were  closed, 
for  half  an  hour  there  reigned  the  stillness  of  death.  The  smoke  settled 
down  so  thickly  that  the  darkness,  like  Egyptian,  could  be  felt.  Then  came 
light  gnats  of  wind,  and  in  the  south  wad  seen,  through  the  smoke  and  dark- 
ness, faint  glimmers  of  light.  The  earth  trembled,  and  the  roar  of  the  ap- 
proaching tornado,  and  the  shock  of  the  falling  trees  broke  the  awful  still- 
ness. No  one  could  realize  the  approaching  danger,  when,  in  almost  a 
moment,  the  holocaust  was  upon  them.  The  fire,  in  its  maddening  rage, 
could  not  keep  pace  with  the  wind,  and  trees,  and  houses,  and  men  were 
blown  down  that  they  might  be  more  rapidly  consumed.  Men,  women,  and 
children  rose  again  to  rush  like  .specters  through  the  flames,  and  fell  separ- 


494  APPENDIX. 

ated  from  each  other.  In  this  terrible  moment  men  thought  the  final  day 
had  come  when  the  earth  should  be  burnt,  and  they  bowed  themselves  to 
offer  their  last  prayer.  More  might  have  been  saved  if  this  conviction  hud 
not  seized  them. 

The  drouth  and  tornado  which  brought  disaster  to  Chicago  brought  this 
also.  These  forest  fires  prevailed  the  most  destructively  in  Door,  Kewan- 
nee,  and  Oconto  counties,  Wisconsin,  nearly  all  of  which  were  so  completely 
devastated  as  to  leave  no  vestige  of  property  remaining  to  its  owners  except 
the  bare  land.  In  open  fields  the  destruction  was  more  complete  than  in  the 
Pine  forests,  where  the  trunks  of  green  trees  are  still  standing,  though  nearly 
worthless.  In  each  of  a  dozen  or  more  townships  from  twenty  to  eighty 
dead  bodies  were  found.  Only  those  who  had  time  and  presence  of  mind 
enough  to  escape  to  a  freshly  plowed  area  escaped  a  fiery  death.  The  fatali- 
ties were  increased  greatly  by  the  suddenness  with  which  the  tornado  of  fire 
swept  upon  them,  and  the  impression  which  it  made  on  a  majority  of  the 
people  that  the  day  of  judgment  had  arrived,  from  which  there  was  no  es- 
cape. The  loss  of  life  in  Wisconsin  is  estimated  at  one  thousand.  On  the 
east  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  the  City  of  Manista  and  Town  of  Holland  were 
almost  entirely  destroyed.  The  same  fires  prevailed  throughout  all  the 
pine  country  bordering  on  Lake  Michigan,  Green  Bay,  and  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Huron.  Governor  Baldwin,  of  Michigan,  estimates  that  at 
least  15,000  people  in  his  state  lost  homes,  clothing,  crops,  farm  stock,  and 
all  their  provisions  by  the  fire.  The  devastation  in  Wisconsin  was  still 
greater.  Very  extensive  and  disastrous  prairie  fires  occurred  in  Western 
and  Central  Minnesota,  just  before  these  calamities  set  in,  thus  making  the 
first  fortnight  of  October,  A.  D.  1871,  a  period  wholly  without  a  parallel  in 
the  history  of  the  world  for  the  extent  of  the  fiery  devastations  which  it  wit- 
nessed. 

It  should  be  added  that  a  goodly  portion  of  the  world's  charity,  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  bestowed  upon  Chicago,  went  to  relieve  the  equal 
or  greater  distress  in  these  country  places,  and  it  poured  in  so  bountifully  on 
all  that  the  Governor  of  Wisconsin  issued  a  proclamation,  early  .in  Novem- 
ber, addressed  to  the  charitable  every-where,  the  purport  of  which  was, 
"  Enough  1" 


APPENDIX  B. 


L    PROCLAMATIONS,   OEDEES,  AND  CORRESPONDENCE. 

THE  FIRST  NOTE  FROM  THE  MAYOB  AND  GOVERNMENT. 
(Issued  early  on  Monday,  9th.) 

WHEREAS,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  to  whose  will  we  humbly  submit,  a 
terrible  calamity  has  befallen  our  city,  which  demands  of  us  our  best  efforts 
for  the  preservation  of  order,  and  the  relief  of  the  suffering ; 

BE  IT  KNOWN  that  the  faith  and  credit  of  the  city  of  Chicago  is  hereby 
pledged  for  the  necessary  expenses  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering.  Public 
order  will  be  preserved.  The  Police  and  Special  Police  now  being  appointed, 
will  be  responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  the  peace  and  the  protection  of 
property.  All  officers  and  men  of  the  Fire  Department  and  Health  Depart- 
ment will  act  as  Special  Policemen  without  further  notice.  The  Mayor  and 
Comptroller  will  give  vouchers  for  all  supplies  furnished  by  the  different 
Relief  Committees.  The  head-quarters  of  the  City  Government  will  be  at 
the  Congregational  Church,  corner  of  West  Washington  and  Ann  Sts.  All 
persons  are  warned  against  any  acts  tending  to  endanger  property.  All  per- 
sons caught  in  any  depredation  will  be  immediately  arrested. 

With  the  help  of  God,  order  and  peace  and  private  property  shall  be  pre- 
served. The  City  Government  and  committees  of  citizens  pledge  themselves 
to  the  community  to  protect  them,  and  prepare  the  way  for  a  restoration  of 
public  and  private  welfare. 

It  is  believed  the  fire  has  spent  its  force,  and  all  will  soon  be  well. 

R  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 
GEO.  TAYLOR,  Comptroller. 

('HAS.  C.  P.  HOLDEN,  President  Common  Council. 
T.  B.  BROWN,  President  Board  of  Police. 
CHICAGO,  October  9th,  1871. 

(495) 


496 


APPENDIX. 


BREAD  ORDINANCE — NOTICE. 

CHICAGO,  October  10,  1871. 

The  following  Ordinance  was  passed  at  a  meeting  of  the  Common  Council 
of  the  City  of  Chicago,  on  the  10th  day  of  October,  A.  D.  1871 : 

An  Ordinance. 

Be  it  ordained  by  the  Common  Council  of  the  City  of  Chicago  : 
SECTION  1.— That  the  Price  of  Bread  in  the  City  of  Chicago  for  the  next 
10  days  is  hereby  fixed  and  established  at  Eight  (8)  Cents  per  Loaf  of  12 
ounces,  and  at  the  same  rate  for  all  Loaves  of  less  or  greater  weight. 

SECTION  2. — Any  person  selling  or  attempting  to  sell  any  bread  within  the 
City  of  Chicago,  within  said  10  days,  at  a  greater  price  than  is  fixed  in  this 
Ordinance,  shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty  of  ten  (10)  dollars  for  each  and  every 
offense,  to  be  collected  as  other  penalties  for  violation  of  City  Ordinances. 

SECTION  3. — This  Ordinance  shall  be  in  full  force  and  effect  from  and  after 
its  passage. 

Approved  October  IQth,  1871. 

Attest :  B.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

N.  [C.  T.]  HOTCHKISS,  Oity  Clerk. 

MAYOR'S  PROCLAMATION — ADVISORY  AND  PRECAUTIONARY. 

1.  All  citizens  are  requested  to  exercise  great  caution  in  the  use  of  fire  in 
their  dwellings,  and  not  to  use  kerosene  lights  at  present,  as  the  city  will  be 
without  a  full  supply  of  water  for  probably  two  or  three  days. 

2.  The   following  bridges  are  passable,  to-wit :  All  bridges  (except  Van 
Buren  and  Adams  Streets)  from  Lake  Street  south,  and  all  bridges  over  the 
North  Branch  of  the  Chicago  River. 

3.  All  good  citizens  who  are  willing  to  serve  are  requested  to  report  at  the 
corner  of  Ann  and  Washington  Streets,  to  be  sworn  in  as  special  policemen. 

Citizens  are  requested  to  organize  a  police  for  each  clock  in  the  city,  and 
to  send  reports  of  such  organization  to  the  police  head-quarters,  corner  of 
Union  and  West  Madison  Streets. 

All  persons  needing  food  will  be  relieved  by  applying  at  the  following 
places: 

At  the  corner  of  Ann  and  Washington;  Illinois  Central  Eailroad  round- 
house. 

M.  S.  B.  B.— Twenty-second  Street  Station. 

C.  B.  &  Q.  B.  B.— Canal  Street  Depot. 

St.  L.  &  A.  B.  B.— Near  Sixteenth  Street. 

C.  &  N.  W.  B.  E.— Corner  of  Kinzie  and  Canal  Streets. 

All  the  public  school-houses,  and  at  nearly  all  the  churches. 


APPENDIX.  497 

4.  Citizens  are  requested  to  avoid  passing  through  the  burnt  districts  un- 
til the  dangerous  walls  left  standing  can  be  leveled. 

5.  All  silicons  are  ordered  to  be  closed  by  8  P.  M.  every  day  for  one  week, 
under  a  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  license. 

6  The  Common  Council  have  this  day,  by  ordinance,  fixed  the  price  of 
bread  at  eight  (8)  cents  per  loaf  of  12  ounces,  and  at  the  same  rate  for  loaves 
of  a  greater  or  less  weight,  and  affixed  a  penalty  of  ten  dollars  for  selling  or 
attempting  to  sell,  bread  at  a  greater  rate  within  the  next  ten  days. 

7.  Any  hackman,  expressman,  drayman,  or  teamster  charging  more  than 
the  regular  fees,  will  have  his  license  revoked. 

8.  All  citizens  are  requested  to  aid  in  preserving  the  peace,  good  order, 
and  good  name  of  our  city. 

B.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 
October  10,  1871. 

ORGANIZING  FOB  SAFETY. 

[The  following  is  not  dated.    It  appeared  upon  the  10th  of  October.] 
Let  us  Organize  for  Safety  in  Chicago. 

1.  The  Mayor's  headquarters  will  be  at  the  corner  of  Ann  and  Washing- 
ton Streets. 

2.  Police  headquarters  at  the  corner  of  Union  and  Madison  Streets. 

3.  Every  special  policeman  will  be  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  sergeant 
for  the  district  in  which  he  performs  duty.    The  sergeants  of  districts  will  be 
appointed  by  the  police  superintendent. 

4.  Five  hundred  citizens  for  each  of  the  districts  will  be  sworn  in  as  special 
policemen. 

5.  The  sergeant  of  each  district  will  procure  from  police  headquarters 
rations  and  supplies  for  special  policemen  in  his  district. 

6.  Orders  to  the  police  will  be  issued  by  the  superintendent  of  police. 

7.  The  military  will  co-operate  with  the  police  organization  and  the  city 
government  in  the  preservation  of  order. 

8.  The  military  are  invested  with  full  police  power,  and  will  be  respected 
and  obeyed  in  their  efforts  to  preserve  order. 

Health  department  corner  of  Ann  and  Washington. 

K.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

[The  above  are  here  printed  from  the  original  fly  sheets,  having  been 
issued  before  the  journals  got  under  way  again. — ED.] 

42 


498  APPENDIX. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  RELIEF. 

1.  All  supplies  of  provisions  will  be  received  and   distributed    by  the 
Special  Relief  Committee,  of  which  O.   E.  Moore  is  Chairman  and  C.  G. 
Hotchkiss  Secretary.     Headquarters  of  committee  on  Ann  and  West  Wash- 
ington Streets. 

2.  All  contributions   of  money  will  be  delivered  to  the  City  Treasurer, 
David  A.  Gage,  who  will  receipt  and  keep  the  same  as  a  Special  Relief 
Fund. 

3.  All  moneys  deposited  at  other  places  for  the  relief  of  the  city  will  be 
drawn  for  only  by  the  mayor  of  this  city. 

4.  No  moneys  will  be  paid  out  of  the  Special  Relief  Fund  except  upon 
the  order  of  the  Auditing  Committee. 

George  Taylor,  City  Comptroller,  Mancell  Tallcott,  Esq.,  of  the  West 
Division,  and  Brock  McVicker,  of  Ihe  South  Divison,  are  hereby  appointed 
Biich  Auditing  Committee. 

5.  Railroad  passes  from  the  city  will  be  issued  under  direction  of  the  Relief 
Committee,  corner  of  Ann  and  West  Washington  Streets,  until  further  orders. 

Given  under  my  hand  this  Jlth  day  of  October,  1871. 

R.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

LOCATION  OF  CITY  OFFICES. 

From  and  after  the  12th  day  of  October,  1871,  the  Mayor's  Office,  City 
Comptroller's,  City  Treasurer's,  and  other  City  Offices,  will  be  at  the  corner 
of  Hubbard  Court  and  Wabash  Avenue. 

The  Department  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  and  other  departments  of 
the  City  Government  will  be  located  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  other 
city  offices. 

Given  under  my  hand  this  llth  day  of  October,  1871. 

Attest :  R.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

C.  T.  HOTCHKISS,  OUy  Clerk. 

TURNING  AFFAIRS  OVER  TO  GENERAL,  SHERIDAN. 

The  preservation  of  the  good  order  and  peace  of  the  city  is  hereby  in- 
trusted to  Lieutenant-General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  United  States  Army. 

The  police  will  act  in  conjunction  with  the  lieutenant-general  in  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  city,  and  the  superintendent  of  the 
police  will  consult  with  him  to  that  end.  The  intent  being  to  ^preserve  the 
peace  of  the  city  without  interfering  with  the  functions  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. 

Given  under  my  seal  this  October  11,  A.  D.  1871. 

R.  B.  MASON,  Mayor, 


APPENDIX.  499 

Ordered  by  the  full  Board  of  Police  that  all  powers  granted  to  special 
police  since  Sunday,  October  8th,  be  and  hereby  are  revoked. 

The  large  military  force  now  iu  the  city,  under  the  command  of  Lieuten- 
ant-General  Sheridan,  co-operating  with  the  regular  police  organization,  is 
now  deemed  sufficient  to  maintain  good  and  quietude  for  the  future. 

T.  B.  BROWN,        "\ 
F.  GUND,  >  Commissioners. 

MARK  SHERIDAN,  J 


SHERIDAN'S  FIRST  REPORT. 

a  MII-.  Div. 
CHICAGO,  October  12, 1871. 


HEADQUARTERS  Mn..  Drv.  OF  THE  MISSOURI,  \ 


To  Hit  Honor  the  Mayor  : 

The  preservation  of  peace  and  good  order  of  the  city  having  been  intrusted 
to  me  by  Your  Honor,  I  am  happy  to  state  that  no  case  of  outbreak  or  dis- 
order has  been  reported.  No  authenticated  attempt  at  incendiarism  has 
reached  me,  and  that  the  people  of  the  city  are  calm,  quiet,  and  well  dis- 
posed. 

The  force  at  my  disposal  is  ample  to  maintain  order,  should  it  be  neces- 
sary, and  protect  the  district  devastated  by  fire.  Still,  I  would  suggest  to 
citizens  not  to  relax  in  their  watchfulness  until  the  smoldering  fires  of  the 
burnt  buildings  are  entirely  extinguished. 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant-GeneraL 

SHERIDAN  ON  THE  ROMANCERS. 

HEADQUARTERS  MFL.  Drv.  OF  THE  MISSOURI,  1 
CHICAGO,  October  17,  1871.         / 

To  His  Honor  Mayor  Maton,  Chicago,  IU. : 

I  respectfully  report  to  Your  Honor  the  continued  peace  and  quiet  of  the 
city.  There  has  been  no  case  of  violence  since  the  disaster  of  Sunday  night 
and  Monday  morning. 

The  reports  in  the  public  press  of  violence  and  disorder  here  are  without 
the  slightest  foundation.  There  has  not  been  a  single  case  of  arson,  hang- 
ing, or  shooting — not  even  a  case  of  riot  or  a  street  fight.  I  have  seen  no 
reason  for  the  circulation  of  such  reports. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  Your  Honor  the  cheerful 
spirit  with  which  the  population  of  this  city  have  met  their  losses  and  suf- 
fering. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant- General. 


500  APPENDIX. 

DISMISSING  CITY  EMPLOYES. 

To  the  Heads  of  all  Departments  of  the  City  Government  : 

The  late  fire  has,  of  necessity,  caused  the  suspension  of  public  improve- 
ments, and  of  much  work  heretofore  done  in  various  departments  of  the  city 
government.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary  to  discharge  all  employes  of 
the  city  government  whose  services  are  not  absolutely  required.  I  respect- 
fully request  that  you,  in  your  several  departments,  immediately  give  notice 
of  discharge  to  all  such,  with  a  view  to  the  most  rigid  economy  which  must 
now  be  observed  in  all  departments. 

E.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

[Not  dated.    Issued  the  19th.] 

FAST  DAY  RECOMMENDED. 

In  view  of  the  recent  appalling  ^public  calamity,  the  undersigned,  Mayor 
of  Chicago,  hereby  earnestly  recommends  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  city 
do  observe  Sunday,  October  29,  as  a  special  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer ; 
of  humiliation  for  those  past  offenses  against  Almighty  God,  to  which  these 
severe  afflictions  were  doubtless  intended  to  lead  our  minds ;  of  prayer  for 
the  relief  and  comfort  of  the  suffering  thousands  in  our  midst ;  for  the  res- 
toration of  our  material  prosperity,  especially  for  our  lasting  improvement 
as  a  people  in  reverence  and  obedience  to  God.  Nor  should  we  even,  amidst 
our  losses  and  sorrows,  forget  to  render  thanks  to  Him  for  the  arrest  of  the 
devouring  fires  in  time  to  save  so  many  homes,  and  for  the  unexampled 
sympathy  and  aid  which  has  flowed  in  upon  us  from  every  quarter  of  our 
land,  and  even  from  beyond  the  seas. 

Given  under  my  hand  this  20th  day  of  October,  1871. 

K.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

SHERIDAN  STEPS  Our. 
The  Mayor  to  General  Sheridan. 

Lieutenant- General  P.  H.  Sheridan,  U.  S.  A.: 

Permit  me  to  tender  you  the  thanks  of  the  city  of  Chicago  and  its  whole 
people  for  the  very  efficient  aid  which  you  have  rendered,  in  protecting  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  citizens,  and  in  the  preservation  of  the  general 
peace  and  good  order  of  the  community.  I  would  like  your  opinion  as  to 
whether  there  is  any  longer  a  necessity  for  the  continued  aid  of  the  military 

in  that  behalf.    Very  respectfully, 

B.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 
CHICAGO,  Oct.  22. 


APPENDIX.  501 

General  Sheridan  to  the  Mayor. 

CHICAGO,  111.,  Oct.  23. 
To  His  Honor,  R.  B.  Mason,  Mayor  of  Chicago : 

SIR  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  kind  note  of  the 
date  of  yesterday,  and  in  reply  I  beg  leave  to  report  a  good  condition  of 
affairs  in  the  city.  If  Your  Honor  deem  it  best,  I  will  disband  the  volun- 
teer organization  of  military  on  duty  since  the  fire,  and  will  consider  myself 
relieved  from  the  responsibility  of  your  proclamation  of  the  llth  instant. 
With  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  kindness  and  courtesy  in  my  intercourse 
with  you,  I  am  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant- General. 

The  Mayor  to  General  Sheridan. 

lAeutenant-General  P.  H.  Sheridan,  U.  S.  A. : 

Upon  consultation  with  the  Board  of  Police  Commissioners,  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  continuance  of  the  efficient  aid  in  the  preservation  of  order  in  this  city 
which  has  been  rendered  by  the  forces  under  your  command  in  pursuance 
of  my  proclamation  is  no  longer  required.  I  will  therefore  fix  the  hour  of 
6  P.  M.  of  this  day  as  the  hour  at  which  the  aid  requested  of  you  shall  cease. 
Allow  me  again  to  tender  you  the  assurance  of  my  high  appreciation  of  the 
great  and  efficient  service  which  you  have  rendered  in  the  preservation  of 
order  and  the  protection  of  property  in  this  city,  and  to  again  thank  you  in 
the  name  of  the  city  of  Chicago  and  its  citizens  therefor.  I  am  respectfully 
yours,  K.  B.  MASON,  Mayor. 

CHICAGO,  Oct.  23. 

Orders  of  Disbandment. 

HEADQUARTERS  MIL.  Div.  OF  THE  MISSOURI,  \ 
CHICAGO,  111.,  Oct.  24, 1871.        / 
Special  Orders  No.  76. 

1.  The  companies  of  the  Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth,  Ninth,  and  Sixteenth 
United  States  Infantry,  on  duty  in  this  city,  are  hereby  relieved,  and  will 
proceed  to  their  respective  stations  as  follows : 

Companies  F,  H,  and  K,  of  the  Fourth,  and  E,  of  the  Sixteenth,  to  Louia- 
ville,  Ky. 

Companies  A,  H,  and  K,  of  the  Fifth,  to  Fort  Leavenworth. 

Company  I,  of  the  Sixth,  to  Fort  Hays. 

Companies  A  and  K,  of  the  Ninth,  to  Omaha. 

The  Quartermaster's  Department  will  furnish  the  necessary  transportation. 

By  command  of  Lieutenant-General  Sheridan. 

Official :  JAMES  B.  FRY,  A.  A.  0. 

M.  V.  SHERIDAN,  LL  Col.  A.  D.  C. 


502  APPENDIX. 

5RS  M: 
CHICAGO,  111.,  Oct.  24, 1871. 


HEADQUARTERS  MIL.  Div.  OF  THE  MISSOURI,  \ 


General  Orders  No.  5. 

The  First  Kegiment  Chicago  Volunteers,  raised  with  the  approbation  of 
the  Mayor,  and  in  pursuance  of  orders  dated  October  11,  1871,  from  these 
headquarters,  is  hereby  honorably  mustered  out  of  service  and  discharged. 
....  These  troops  were  suddenly  called  from  civil  pursuits 
to  aid  Lieutenant-General  Sheridan  in  preserving  peace  and  good  order,  and 
in  protecting  the  property  in  the  unburnt  portion  of  the  city,  a  duty  in- 
trusted to  him  during  the  emergency  resulting  from  the  late  fire.  They  came 
forward  promptly  and  cheerfully  at  a  time  rendered  critical*  by  the  un- 
paralleled disaster  which  visited  the  city  on  the  8th  and  9th  insts.,  a  calamity 
producing  general  distrust  and  distress,  leaving  a  large  part  of  the  city  in 
smoldering  ruins,  a  large  part  in  darkness  by  the  destruction  of  the  gas-works, 
and  the  whole  of  it  without  water ;  and  this  with  a  fire  department  crippled 
and  exhausted  by  the  struggle  it  had  gone  through.  They  have  performed 
the  arduous  and  delicate  duties  falling  to  them  under  these  circumstances 
with  marked  industry,  fidelity,  and  intelligence.  The  Lietenant-General 
thanks  officers  and  men  of  the  command  for  the  services  rendered,  and  com- 
mends them  to  the  kind  consideration  of  their  fellow-citizens ;  and  he  makes 
special  acknowledgment  of  the  valuable  aid  received  from  their  commander, 
General  Frank  T.  Sherman — distinguished  upon  the  battle-fields  of  the  late 
war — as  well  as  from  his  efficient  staff,  Major  C.  H.  Dyer,  Adjutant,  and 
Major  Charles  T.  Scammon,  Aide-de-camp. 

By  command  of  Lieutenant-General  Sheridan. 

JAMES  B.  FRY,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

SHERIDAN'S  REPORT  TO  SHERMAN. 

HEADQUARTERS  MILITARY  DIVISION  OF  THE  MISSOURI,  1 
CHICAGO,  October  25, 1871.         / 

To  the  Adjutant  General  of  the  Army,  Washington  D.  C. : 

SIR  :  The  disorganized  condition  of  affairs  in  this  city,  produced  by  and 
immediately  following  the  late  fire,  induced  the  city  authorities  to  ask  for  as- 
sistance from  the  military  forces,  as  shown  by  the  Mayor's  proclamation  of 
October  11,  1871.  [Copy  herewith,  marked  A.]  To  protect  the  public  inter- 
ests intrusted  to  me  by  the  Mayor's  proclamation,  I  called  to  this  city  com- 
panies A  and  K  of  the  Ninth  Infantry,  from  Omaha ;  companies  A,  H  and  K 
of  the  Fifth  Infantry,  from  Fort  Leavenworth ;  company  I,  Sixth  Infantry, 
from  Fort  Scott,  and  accepted  the  kind  offer  of  Major-General  Halleck  to 
send  to  me  companies  F,  H  and  K  of  the  Fourth,  and  company  E  of  the 
Sixteenth  Infantry,  from  Kentucky.  I  also,  with  the  approbation  of  the 


APPENDIX.  %     503 

Mayor,  called  into  the  service  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  a  regiment  of  volun- 
teers for  twenty  days.  [Copy  of  this  call  inclosed  herewith,  marked  B.] 
These  troops,  both  regulars  and  volunteers,  were  actively  engaged  during 
their  service  here  in  protecting  the  treasure  in  the  burnt  district,  guarding 
the  unburnt  district  from  disorders  and  danger  by  further  fires,  and  in  pro- 
tecting the  store-houses,  depots,  and  sub-depots  of  supplies  established  for  the 
relief  of  the  sufferers  from  the  fire.  These  duties  were  terminated  on  tlie 
23d  inst.,  as  shown  by  letters  herewith  [marked  C,  D,  and  E],  and  on  the  24th 
inst.  the  regulars  started  to  their  respective  stations,  and  the  volunteers  were 
discharged,  as  shown  by  special  order  No.  76,  and  general  order  No.  5,  from 
these  headquarters.  [Copies  Herewith.]  It  is  proper  to  mention  that  these 
volunteers  were  not  taken  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  no  orders, 
agreements,  or  promises  were  made  giving  them  any  claims  against  the 
United  States  for  services  rendered. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN, 
Lieutenant-General  United  States  Army,  Commanding. 

SHERMAN'S  APPROVAL. 

General  Sherman  submitted  the  foregoing  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
with  the  following  emphatic  endorsement : 

The  extraordinary  circumstances  attending  the  great  fire  in  Chicago  made 
it  eminently  proper  that  General  Sheridan  should  exercise  the  influence, 
authority,  and  power  he  did  on  the  universal  appeal  of  a  ruined  and  dis- 
tressed people,  backed  by  their  civil  agents,  who  were  powerless  for  good. 
The  very  moment  that  the  civil  authorities  felt  able  to  resume  their  functions 
General  Sheridan  ceased  to  exercise  authority,  and  the  United  States  troops 
returned  to  their  respective  stations.  General  Sheridan's  course  is  fully  ap- 
proved. W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General. 

II.    OFFICIAL  EXPRESSIONS  OF  SYMPATHY  FROM  ABROAD. 

PROCLAMATION  BY  THE  GOVERNOR  or  ILLINOIS. 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS,         \ 
EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT.  / 

John  M.  Palmer,  Governor  of  Illinois,  To  all  whom  these  presents  shall  come, 

greeting: 

Whereas,  .in  my  judgment,  the  great  calamity  that  has  overtaken  Chicago, 
the  largest  city  of  the  State;  that  has  deprived  many  thousands  of  our  citizens 
of  homes  and  rendered  them  destitute ;  that  has  destroyed  many  millions  in 
value  of  property,  and  thereby  disturbing  the  business  of  the  people  and 


504      .  APPENDIX. 

deranging  the  finances  of  the  State,  and  interrupting  the  execution  of  the 
laws,  is  and  constitutes"  an  extraordinary  occasion"  within  the  true  intent 
and  meaning  of  the  eighth  section  of  the  fifth  article  of  the  Constitution. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  John  M.  Palmer,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Illinoi«,  do 
by  this,  my  proclamation,  convene  and  invite  the  two  Houses  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  session  in  the  city  of  Springfield,  on  Friday,  the  13th  day  of  the 
month  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1871,  at  12  o'clock  noon  of  said 
day,  to  take  into  consideration  the  following  subjects: 

1.  To  appropriate  such  sum  or  sums  of  money,  or  adopt  such  other  legisla- 
tive measures  as  may  be  thought  judicious,  necessary,  or  proper,  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  people  of  the  city  of  Chicago. 

2.  To  make  provision,  by  amending  the  revenue  laws  or  otherwise,  for  the 
proper  and  just  assessment  and  collection  of  taxes  within  the  city  of  Chicago. 

3.  To  enact  such  other  laws  and  to  adopt  such  other  measures  as  may  be 
necessary  for  the  relief  of  the  city  of  Chicago  and  die  people  of  said  city,  and 
for  the  execution  and  enforcement  of  the  laws  of  the  State. 

4.  To  make  appropriations  for  the  expenses  of  the  General  Assembly,  and 
euch  other  appropriations  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  on  the  State  Govern- 
ment. 

In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
[SEAL.]    great  seal  of  the  State  to  be  affixed.     Done  at  the  city  of  Spring- 
field, this  10th  day  of  October,  A.  D.  1871. 

JOHN  M.  PALMER. 
By  the  Governor, 

EDWARD  KUMMELL,  Secretary  of  State. 

BY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  WISCONSIN. 

To  the  People  of  Wisconsin : 

Throughout  the  northern  part  of  this  State  fires  have  been  raging  in  the 
woods  for  many  days,  spreading  desolation  on  every  side.  It  is  reported  that 
hundreds  of  families  have  been  rendered  homeless  by  this  devouring  element, 
and  reduced  to  utter  destitution,  their  entire  crops  having  been  consumed. 
Their  stock  has  been  destroyed,  and  their  farms  are  but  a  blackened  desert. 
Unless  they  receive  instant  aid  from  portions  not  visited  by  this  dreadful  ca- 
lamity, they  must  perish. 

The  telegraph  also  brings  the  terrible  news  that  a  large  portion  of  the  city 
of  Chicago  is  destroyed  by  a  conflagration,  which  is  still  raging.  Many 
thousands  of  people  are  thus  reduced  to  penury,  stripped  of  their  all,  and  are 
now  destitute  of  shelter  and  food.  Their  sufferings  will  be  intense,  and  many 
may  perish  unless  provisions  are  at  once  sent  to  them  from  the  surrounding 
country.  •  They  must  be  assisted  now. 


APPENDIX.  605 

In  the  awful  presence  of  such  calamities  the  people  of  Wisconsin  will  not 
be  backward  in  giving  assistance  to  their  afflicted  fellow-men. 

I,  therefore,  recommend  that  immediate  organized  effort  be  made  in  every 
locality  to  forward  provisions  and  money  to  the  sufferers  by  this  visitation, 
and  suggest  to  Mayors  of  cities,  Presidents  of  villages,  Town  Supervisors, 
Pastors  of  Churches,  and  to  the  various  benevolent  societies,  that  they  devote 
themselves  immediately  to  the  work  of  organizing  effort,  collecting  contribu- 
tions, and  sending  forward  supplies  for  distribution. 

And  I  entreat  all  to  give  their  abundance  to  help  those  in  such  sore  dis- 
tress 

Given  under  my  hand,  at  the  Capitol,  at  Madison,  this  9th  day  of  October, 
A.  D.  1871.  Lucius  FAIRCHILD. 

BY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  MICHIGAN. 

STATE  OF  MICHIGAN,  EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,  \ 
LANSING,  October  9th.     / 

The  city  of  Chicago,  in  the  neighboring  State  of  Illinois,  has  been  visited, 
in  the  providence  of  Almighty  God,  with  a  calamity  almost  unequaled  in 
the  annals  of  history.  A  large  portion  of  that  beautiful  and  most  prosperous 
city  has  been  reduced  to  ashes  and  is  now  in  ruins.  Many  millions  of  dollars 
in  property,  the  accumulation  of  years  of  industry  and  toil,  have  been  swept 
away  in  a  moment.  The  rich  have  been  reduced  to  penury,  the  poor  have 
lost  the  little  they  possessed,  and  many  thousands  of  people  rendered  home- 
less and  houseless,  and  are  now  without  the  absolute  necessaries  of  life.  I, 
therefore,  earnestly  call  upon  the  citizens  of  every  portion  of  Michigan  to 
take  immediate  measures  for  alleviating  the  pressing  wants  of  that  fearfully 
afflicted  city  by  collecting  and  forwarding  to  the  Mayor  or  proper  authorities 
of  Chicago  supplies  of  food  as  well  as  liberal  collections  of  money.  Let  this 
gore  calamity  of  our  neighbors  remind  us  of  the  uncertainty  of  earthly  pos- 
sessions, and  that  when  one  member  suffers  all  the  members  should  suf- 
fer with  it.  I  can  not  doubt  that  the  whole  people  of  the  State  will  most 
gladly,  and  most  promptly,  and  most  liberally  respond  to  this  urgent  demand 
upon  their  sympathy,  but  no  words  of  mine  can  plead  so  strongly  as  the  ca- 
lamitv  itself.  HENRY  P.  BALDWIN. 

Governor  of  Michigan, 

BY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  MISSOURI. 

JEFFERSON  CITY,  October  9, 1871. 
To  the  People  of  3/issouri: 

A  calamity  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  our  country  has  befallen  the 
great  city  of  our  sister  State.    Half  of  the  houses  of  the  people  of  Chicago 
43 


606  APPENDIX. 

are  in  ashes,  and  all  of  its  business  portion  is  destroyed.  Every  bank,  rail- 
road depot,  insurance  office,  newspaper  establishment,  every  wholesale  house, 
all  its  accumulated  products  and  food  supply,  and  nearly  every  trade  appli- 
ance and  the  elevators  are  reported  as  utterly  consumed.  Such  disaster  will 
move  the  hearts  of  our  citizens  with  the  profoundest  sympathy.  Let  us  unite 
likewise  in  the  most  generous  emulation,  and  extend  the  largest  possible  aid 
to  them  in  this,  the  hour  of  misfortune.  I,  therefore,  recommend  all  coun- 
ties, cities,  towns,  and  other  corporations,  to  all  business  and  charitable  asso- 
ciations, and  to  the  community  at  large,  to  take  immediate  steps  to  organize 
relief  committees  to  express  the  deep  sorrow  which  Missouri  feels  at  this 
overwhelming  affliction.  It  was  only  yesterday  that  they  were  united  with 
you  in  congratulating  you  on  your  own  soil  and  in  your  own  chief  city, 
whilst  their  own  homes  were  being  destroyed.  Let  us  respond  by  throwing 
open  wide  our  own  doors  to  those  who  are  without  shelter,  by  sending  bread 
and  raiment  at  once,  and  by  such  contributions  ward  off  further  distress,  as 
the  generous  heart  of  our  own  great  State  will  be  proud  to  transmit,  in  recog- 
nition, too,  of  the  warm  and  intimate  feeling  that  has  heretofore  so  closely 
bound  our  citizens  together.  I  can  not  forbear  to  extend  to  all  who  have 
been  thus  stricken  down  in  the  midst  of  an  unbounded  prosperity  the  sincer- 
cst  sympathy  of  Missouri's  sons  and  daughters  in  their  distress. 
Done  at  the  City  of  Jefferson,  this  9th  day  of  October,  A.  D.  1871. 

B.  GRATZ  RhowN,  Governor  of  Missouri, 

BY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  IOWA. 

To  the  People  of  Iowa: 

An  appalling  calamity  has  befallen  our  sister  State.  Her  metropolis,  the 
great  city  of  Chicago,  is  in  ruins.  Over  100,000  people  are  without  shelter 
or  food,  except  as  supplied  by  others.  A  helping  hand  let  us  now  promptly 
give.  Let  the  liberality  of  our  people,  so  lavishly  displayed  during  the  long 
period  of  national  peril,  come  again  to  the  front,  to  lend  succor  in  this  hour 
of  distress.  I  would  urge  the  appointment  at  once  of  relief  committees  in 
every  city,  town,  and  township,  and  I  respectfully  ask  the  local  authorities 
to  call  meetings  of  the  citizens  to  devise  ways  and  means  to  render  efficient 
aid.  I  would  also  ask  the  pastors  of  the  various  churches  throughout  the 
State  to  take  up  collections  on  Sunday  morning  next,  or  at  such  other  time  as 
they  may  deem  proper,  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers.  Let  us  not  be  satisfied 
•with  any  spasmodic  effort.  There  will  be  need  of  relief  of  a  substantial 
character  to  aid  the  many  thousands  to  prepare  for  the  rigors  of  the  coming 
winter.  The  magnificent  public  charities  of  that  city,  now  paralyzed,  can  do 
little  to  this  end.  Those  who  live  in  homes  of  comfort  and  plenty  must 


APPENDIX.  507 

furnish  this  help,  or  misery  and  suffering  will  be  the  fate  of  many  thousands 
of  our  neighbors. 

SAMUEL  MERRILL,  Governor. 

V 

DBS  MOINES,  October  10,  1871. 

BY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  OHIO. 

CHICAGO,  October  12th. 
To  the  People  of  Ohio: 

It  is  believed  by  the  best  informed  citizens  here  that  many  thousands  of 
the  sufferers  must  be  provided  with  the  necessaries  of  life  during  the  cold 
winter.  Let  the  efforts  to  raise  contributions  be  energetically  pushed. 
Money,  fuel,  flour,  pork,  clothing,  and  other  articles  not  perishable,  should 
be  collected  as  rapidly  as  possible — especially  money,  fuel,  and  flour.  Mr. 
Joseph  Medill,  of  The  Tribune,  estimates  the  number  of  those  who  will  need 
assistance  at  about  70,000. 

B.  B.  HAYES,  Governor  of  Ohio. 

[Governor  Randolph,  of  New  Jersey,  and  perhaps  other  Governors  of 
States,  issued  a  similar  appeal  to  his  people  in  behalf  of  the  stricken  city.] 

LETTER  FROM  THE  PRESIDENT. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,   I 
October  11,  1871.  / 

To  Hon.  Samuel  Hooper,  Boston,  Mass. : 

Would  it  not  be  well  for  the  good  people  of  Boston  to  dispense  with  the 
ceremony  and  expense  of  a  public  reception  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to 
your  city,  and  appropriate  such  portion  of  the  fund  set  apart  for  that  pur- 
pose, as  is  deemed  advisable,  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  by  the  Chicago 
disaster?  I  am  sure  such  a  course  would  please  me. 

U.  S.  GRANT. 

PROCLAMATION  OF  THE  MAYOR  OF  SALT  LAKE  CITY. 

The  news  having  been  confirmed  of  the  terrible  conflagration  by  which  a 
great  portion  of  the  city  of  Chicago  has  been  reduced  to  ashes,  acd  one  hun- 
dred thousand  people  have  been  stripped  of  their  homes,  clothing,  and 
means  of  subsistence,  therefore, 

I,  Daniel  U.  Wells,  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City,  by  the  wish  and  authority 
of  the  City  Council  of  said  city,  call  upon  all  classes  of  the  people  to  assem- 
ble in  mass  meeting,  to-morrow,  Wednesday,  October  llth,  at  1  o'clock,  P.  M., 
at  the  Old  Tabernacle,  in  this  city,  for  the  purpose  of  making  subscription* 


508  APPENDIX. 

and  taking  such  measures  as  are  demanded  for  the  relief  of  our  fellow-citi- 
zens who  are  sufferers  by  this  dreadful  visitation. 

DANIEL  H.  WELLS,  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
October  10,  1871. 

THE  MASONS  OP  NEW  YORK  STATE. 

To  the  Worshipful  Masters,  Wardens,  and  Brethren  of  all  Lodges  of  Free  and 
Accepted  Masons  in  the  State  of  New  YorK  : 

Brethren,  a  calamity,  one  of  the  most  appalling  either  of  ancient  or  mod- 
ern times,  has  befallen  one  of  the  fairest  and  hitherto  most  prosperous  cities  of 
our  Union.  Within  a  brief  space  of  time  the  devastating  element  has  swept 
out  of  existence  the  public  and  private  edifices  of  Chicago,  destroying  mill- 
ions of  dollars'  worth  of  property,  and  leaving  homeless  and  penniless  thou- 
sands of  its  people,  among  whom  are  many  of  our  brethren  and  their  fami- 
lies. The  cry  of  distress  and  the  prayer  for  relief,  speedy  and  sufficient, 
reaches  our  ears ;  our  hearts  should  not  be  shut  to  the  appeal,  nor  our  hands 
be  idle  in  extending  aid.  We  should  show  that  our  ancient  order  is  founded 
upon  brotherly  love,  and  that  we  are  ever  willing  to  extend  relief  to  suffer- 
ing humanity. 

Therefore,  I,  John  H.  Anthon,  Grand  Master  of  Masons  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  desire  to  lay  before  the  Masons  of  the  State  of  New  York  the 
appeal  of  our  suffering  brethren  in  Chicago,  and  all  the  desolate  and  op- 
pressed of  that  afflicted  city,  in  order  that  a  fund  may  be  raised  for  their 
immediate  relief;  and  I  do  fraternally  and  most  earnestly  beseech  my  breth- 
ren to  give  toward  this  object  as  liberally  as  their  means  will  allow.  I  suggest 
contributions  in  money,  knowing  that  relief  committees  will  be  organized, 
and  that  such  sums  as  may  be  raised  will  be  disbursed  by  them  in  a  proper 
and  efficient  manner.  Contributions,  sent  in  drafts  on  New  York  to  the 
order  of  the  Grand  Master,  at  his  office,  No.  271  Broadway,  will  be  by  him 
forwarded  to  Chicago. 

J.  H.  ANTHON. 
Grand  Master's  Office,  October  9,  1871. 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN  TO  SECRETARY  BELKNAP. 

CHICAGO,  October  9th, 
General  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War  : 

The  city  of  Chicage  is  almost  utterly  destroyed  by  fire.  There  is  now  no 
reasonable  hope  of  arresting  it,  as  the  wind,  which  is  yet  blowing  a  gale,  does 
not  change.  I  ordered,  on  your  authority,  rations  from  St.  Louis,  tents  from 


APPENDIX.  509 

Jeffersonville,  and  two  companies  from  Omaha.     There  will  be  many  house= 
less  people  and  much  distress. 

(Signed)  '  P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant- General. 

CHICAGO,  October  9<A. 
W.  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War: 

The  fire  here  last  night  and  to-day  has  destroyed  almost  all  that  was  very 
valuable  in  this  city.  There  is  not  a  business  house,  bank,  or  hotel,  left. 
Most  of  the  best  part  of  the  city  is  gone.  Without  exaggeration,  all  the 
valuable  portion  of  the  city  is  in  ruins.  I  think  that  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred thousand  persons  are  houseless,  and  those  who  have  had  the  most 
wealth  are  now  poor.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  such  a  terrible  misfortune  that 
it  may  with  propriety  be  considered  a  national  calamity. 

(Signed)  P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant-  General. 

THE  SECRETARY'S  KESPONSE. 

WASHINGTON,  October  IQth. 
Lieutenant- General  Sheridan,  Chicago: 

I  agree  with  you  that  the  fire  is  a  national  calamity.  The  sufferers  have 
the  sincere  sympathy  of  the  nation.  The  officers  at  the  depots  at  St.  Louis, 
Jeffersonville,  and  elsewhere  have  been  ordered  to  forward  supplies  liberally 
and  promptly. 

(Signed)  WILLIAM  W.  BELKNAP,  Secretary  of  War. 

To  the  Mayor  of  Chicago  : 

General  Sheridan  has  been  authorized  to  supply  clothing,  tools,  and  pro- 
visions from  the  depots  at  Jeffersonville  and  St.  Louis  to  the  extent  and 
ability  of  the  Department. 

(Signed)  WILLIAM  W.  BELKNAP,  Secretary  of  War. 


APPENDIX  C. 

CONTEMPORARY  OPINION  CONCERNING  THE  CITY 
AND  THE  EVENT. 

REBUILDING  THE  CITY. 


SHE  WILL  KISE  AGAIN. 

[From  the  New  York  World,  October  11.] 

The  appalling  calamity  which  has  so  suddenly  overtaken  Chicago  like  a 
thief  in  the  night,  and  which  fills  all  imaginations  with  horror  and  all 
hearts  with  oppressive,  agonizing  pity,  has,  nevertheless,  a  hopeful  side.  It 
is  not  as  if  that  great  city  and  its  inhabitants  had  been  ingulfed  by  an  earth- 
quake. The  greater  part  of  the  people  are  spared,  and  although  there  will 
he  much  suffering  for  want  of  shelter,  this  will  be  but  temporary,  and  con- 
tributions of  food  are  already  reaching  them  from  sources  of  generous,  com- 
miserating cities.  None  of  these  sufferers  will  die  of  starvation,  and  those 
of  them  who  remain  during  the  winter  will  have  such  protection  from  cold 
as  can  be  given  by  tents  and  abundant  clothing.  By  close  overcrowding  of 
the  unconsumed  dwellings  in  the  city  and  suburbs,  by  the  emigration  of  man- 
ufacturing laborers,  by  the  placing  of  women  and  children  with  distant 
friends,  or  procuring  them  board  in  the  country,  it  Avill  not  be  necessary  for 
any  but  the  hardier  class  of  laborers  to  pass  the  winter  in  tents.  The  stress 
of  the  suffering  will  not  extend  beyond  the  ensuing  ten  days,  and  will  con- 
sist chiefly  in  exposure  (especially  if  there  should  be  cold,  pelting  rain 
storms),  and  in  the  desolating  sense  of  the  utter  loss  of  property  by  people 
whom  lives  of  toil  had  rendered  comfortable.  Many  individuals  are  hope- 
lessly ruined,  but  a  very  few  years  will  restore  the  city. 

The  growth  of  Chicago,  a  city  which  has  risen  like  an  exhalation  on  the 
south-western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  has  been  regarded  by  travelers  and 
economists  as  one  of  the  chief  marvels  of  recent  times.    It  is  a  phenomenon 
(510) 


APPENDIX.  511 

which  never  had  a  parallel,  but  which  will  be  eclipsed  and  outdone  by  the 
more  astonishing  miracle  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  burnt  city  out  of  its 
ashes.  Forty  and  two  years  was  this  city  in  building,  and  yet  it  will  be  re- 
constructed in  three  years.  It  will  rise  again  from  its  ruins  as  if  by  magic, 
and  the  wonder  of  its  original  growth  will  be  forgotten  in  the  greater  wonder 
of  its  sudden  new  creation. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  danger  of  the  transfer  of  her  grain  trade  and  her 
various  business  to  other  lake  cities.  At  present  the  other  lake  cities  have 
not  facilities  to  accommodate  it;  their  elevators,  warehouses,  mercantile 
establishments,  banks,  etc.,  being  proportioned  to  the  business  they  already 
possess.  To  transact  in  addition  the  business  of  Chicago,  they  would  need 
an  enormous  increase  of  structures,  accommodations,  and  capital.  But  these 
can  be  replaced  in  Chicago  as  quickly  as  they  could  be  built  at  Milwaukee 
and  other  lake  ports;  and  nobody  will  invest  money  for  them  elsewhere  with 
the  certainty  that  Chicago  will  be  rebuilt  as  speedily  as  multitudes  of  busy 
hands  can  do  the  work.  The  lake  commerce  will  always  tend  to  one  great 
center,  and  there  is  no  other  center  which  possesses  such  natural  advantages 
as  Chicago.  These  have  been  increased  by  costly  artificial  advantages  which 
it  has  required  thirty  years  of  persistent  industry  to  create.  All  the  great 
railroad  lines  have  been  constructed  with  a  view  to  Chicago  as  a  starting 
point  and  a  terminus.  It  might  be  easy  to  build  a  new  town,  if  that  were 
all ;  but  not  easy  to  reconstruct  the  railroad  system  of  the  West  with  a  new 
point  of  convergence. 

Chicago  has  still  all  the  elements  of  a  great  city,  except  the  mere  build- 
ings. She  has  her  river  harbor,  which  has  been  dredged  and  enlarged,  and 
her  piers  and  breakwaters,  which  have  been  constructed  at  enormous  expense. 
These  can  not  be  extemporized  in  any  other  place.  She  has  her  light-houses 
for  the  security  of  navigation.  She  has  her  expensive  tunnel  under  Lake 
Michigan  for  supplying  a  city  thrice  her  recent  magnitude  with  pure  water. 
She  has  her  entensive  system  of  sewerage,  which,  being  under  ground  and 
constructed  of  incombustible  materials,  has  not  been  consumed.  She  has  the 
grading  of  her  streets  and  the  excavation  of  her  cellars  and  vaults.  She  has 
the  outlying  vegetable  gardens  and  milk  dairies  for  supplying  her  tables. 
Her  vast  cattle-yards  were  untouched  by  the  flames.  The  destruction  of  her 
great  railroad  depots  will  scarcely  obstruct  travel  and  traffic,  as  passengers 
can  be  received  and  landed,  and  freight  taken  and  delivered,  in  the  open  air, 
until  the  depots  are  rebuilt. 

And  what  is,  perhaps,  the  most  important  of  all  her  remaining  advantages 
and  sources  of  resuscitation,  Chicago  has  not  lost  her  shrewd,  enterprising, 
energetic,  indomitable  men  of  business.  They  can  more  easily  re-establish 
themselves  in  Chicago  than  they  can  form  new  connections  elsewhere.  They 


512  APPENDIX. 

will  not  break  from  their  creditors  in  the  East,  nor  from  their  customers 
in  the  West.  The  vast,  magnificent  North-west  must  still  be  supplied 
with  goods,  and  they  will  continue  to  furnish  the  supply.  New  men  in  new 
cities  have  not  their  business  acquaintances,  and  can  not  build  stores  and 
collect  stocks  as  quickly  as  the  Chicago  merchants  can  build  and  renew 
them.  Chicago  will  restore  herself  before  competitors  can  come  into  the 
field. 

£HE  WILL  RISE  QUICKLY. 

fFrom  the  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  October  14.] 
Chicago  will  recover,  not  by  gradual  steps,  but  with  a  bound.  The  calam- 
ity that  befell  her,  appalling  as  it  is,  has  only  destroyed  the  results,  not  the 
causes  of  her  prosperity.  Chicago  has  still  all  the  natural  advantages  that 
made  her  what  she  was.  Her  position  in  reference  to  the  great  chain  of 
lakes,  and  the  great  grain-producing,  stock-raising,  and  lumber  regions  of 
the  North-west,  with  the  network  of  railways  connecting  her  with  the 
Atlantic,  the  Pacific,  and  the  Gulf,  made  Chicago  a  great  commercial  center, 
and  must  continue  to  make  her  so  still.  The  ground  on  which  the  city 
stands,  the  lakes,  the  rivers,  the  fields,  the  prairies,  the  forest,  and  the  rail- 
ways, which  gave  her  greatness,  are  all  there  to  give  it  to  her  again.  Com- 
merce must  continue  to  flow  through  its  natural  channels  and  through  the 
artificial  ones  provided  for  it.  It  would  be  more  difficult  to  stop  or  divert  it 
now  than  it  would  be  to  build  a  dozen  cities.  Chicago  grew,  from  four  thou- 
sand people  in  1840,  to  thirty  thousand  in  1850,  then  to  a  hundred  thousand 
in  1860,  and  then  to  three  hundred  thousand  in  1870.  The  channels  that 
poured  population  and  wealth  into  the  great  city  of  the  West  at  this  aston- 
ishing rate  still  exist,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  they  will  produce 
the  same  result  in  the  future  as  in  the  past. 

ST.  Louis'  OPINION. 
[From  the  St.  Louis  Republican,  Oct.  13.] 

That  Chicago  will  be  rebuilt,  and  that  with  wonderful  rapidity,  is  a  truth 
too  manifest  to  be  denied.  The  necessities  that  led  to  the  erection  of  a  great 
city  at  the  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  demand  its  reconstruction.  The  de- 
struction of  that  city  creates  an  immense  vacuum,  and  the  first  instinctive 
efforts  of  the  great  North-west  will  be  directed  to  filling  it.  The  vast  traffic 
that  was  wont  to  flow  into  Chicago  will,  for  a  time,  be  turned  aside  from  it, 
for  want  of  accommodations,  and  Milwaukee  and  St.  Louis  will  temporarily 
profit  by  this  diversion ;  Milwaukee  and  St.  Louis  merchants  will  be  called 
on  to  do  the  business  which  Chicago  merchants  did ;  the  great  Northwest, 
that  sent  its  blood  through  the  Lake  City,  is  untouched,  and  possesses  all  its 


APPENDIX.  513 

blood  unimpaired.  It  needs  only  new  channels  and  new  reservoirs  to  supply 
those  which  have  been  destroyed  ;  and  it  will  turn  spontaneously  to  St.  Louis 
and  Milwaukee  to  find  them.  But  Chicago  was  a  necessity,  and  a  great  city 
on  the  site  where  it  stood  in  a  necessity  now.  Things  in  this  country  have 
not  reached  that  decayed  condition  which  makes  wastes,  desolations,  and  the 
permanent  ruin  of  ancient  splendor,  possible.  The  very  convergence  of 
railroads  at  Chicago  proves  the  need  of  a  great  city  there,  and  t«lls  us  tb.it 
the  rebuilding  of  the  one  which  we  have  seen  destroyed  will  be  witnessed. 
The  noise  of  the  ax,  the  hammer,  and  the  saw  will  shortly  be  heard  in  the 
borders  of  the  smitten  city  as  it  was  never  heard  before;  its  palaces  and 
temples  will  rise  again  from  the  seared  and  blackened  earth,  and  in  a  few 
years  the  burnt  district  will  be  hidden  by  fair  and  stately  buildings  revealing 
no  vestige  of  the  great  calamity.  The  sad  feature  in  this  bright  picture  of 
future  glory  and  greatness  is  that  the  victims  of  the  calamity  will  not  largely 
participate  in  the  enjoyment  of  it.  The  ruined  great  men  of  Chicago  will 
have  given  place  to  others;  those  of  them  who  have  managed  to  save  some- 
thing from  the  wreck  of  thejir  fortunes  will  have  these  fragments  to  begin 
with  again,  and  will  thus  be  able  to  keep  abreast  with  competitors  in  the  new 
race  about  to  commence ;  but  the  capital  to  rebuild  the  city  and  to  control 
its  commerce  must  come  from  elsewhere,  and  be  directed  by  other  men ;  and 
when  the  reconstruction  shall  have  been  completed,  and  a  towering  city 
reared  on  the  site  of  the  destroyed  one,  we  shall  find  that  the  new  city  is  in 
the  hands  of  a  new  generation. 

It  will  be  some  years  to  come  before  Chicago  can  again  be  a  center  of 
opulence,  luxury,  and  extravagance,  but  it  will  be  a  good  place  for  an  indus- 
trious man  to  go  to,  if  he  desires  to  find  profitable  employment,  and  to  grow 
up  with  its  growth. 

MILWAUKEE  OPINION. 
[From  the  Milwaukee  News,  October  16.] 

The  year  1880,  now  less  than  nine  years  distant,  will  find  Chicago  with 
more  than  her  late  greatness,  and  with  scarcely  a  scar  of  her  present  calam- 
ity remaining.  Chicago  was  not  an  accident,  nor  the  creature  of  specula- 
tion, nor  a  mushroom  growth.  It  was  brought  into  existence  by  the  de- 
velopment and  necessities  of  the  great  North-west,  and  at  the  time  of  its 
destruction  no  more  than  fairly  represented  that  development  and  minis- 
tered to  those  necessities.  It  was  forty  years  in  its  growth,  just  because 
the  North-west  was  forty  years  in  its  growth.  But  it  is  now  cut  off,  with  all 
its  growth,  and  all  these  necessities  which  created  it  remaining  in  active  ex- 
istence. These  necessities  represent  an  omnipotent  power.  AH  the  difficul- 
ties you  can  cite  are  but  flax  in  the  fire  or  mist  in  the  sun  compared  with 


514  APPENDIX. 

the  concentrated  vigor  which  must  inevitably  and  necessarily  center  on  this 
spot  for  recuperation  and  reconstruction.  Where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a 
way ;  and  here  there  is  a  will  which  can  not  flag,  because  it  proceeds  from 
precisely  the  same  causes  which  have  already  lifted  the  city  from  the  prairie 
marsh,  and  which  causes  are  not  obliged  to  pass  again  through  a  forty  years' 
growth,  inasmuch  as  they  ezist  now  in  all  the  power  and  vigor  pertaining  to 
them  before  this  destruction. 

Nine  or  ten  years  at  farthest  will  witness  the  complete  restoration  of  the 
city,  but  even  this  time  may  be  shortened  by  an  energetic  grasping  and  wise 
application  of  the  agencies  which  would  hasten  the  result. 

Of  one  thing,  let  us  disabuse  ourselves,  if  we  entertain  such  ideas — that  we 
can  ever  be  permanently  benefited  by  this  disaster  remaining  without  rem- 
edy. As  well  hope  that  one  part  of  the  human  body  can  be  benefited  by  an 
unhealed  sore  on  another  part.  Individual  fortunes  have  been  swallowed  up, 
and  many  of  the  sufferers  will  know  no  recuperation ;  but  the  time  is  not  dis- 
tant when  Chicago,  in  greatness  and  wealth,  will  exceed  her  late  condition. 

C.  L.  SHOLES. 

NEW  ORLEANS  OPINION. — "CHICAGO  DELENDA  EST." 
[From  a  New  Orleans  Paper.] 

Now  that  the  first  shock  with  which  the  Chicago  calamity  was  received 
has  passed  away,  we  are  enabled  to  estimate  its  magnitude  more  deliberately, 
and  the  hopeful  promise  which  pierced  the  consuming  flames  of  her  speedy 
restoration  seems  to  be  now  dying  in  the  smoke  of  her  smoldering  embers. 
The  magical  growth  and  stupendous  wealth  of  this  great  interior  metropolis 
was,  in  the  main,  due  to  geographical,  commercial,  and  other  causes,  which  no 
longer  exist  in  their  original  force. 

The  center  of  a  net-work  of  railroads,  all  immediately  tributary,  their 
gradual  extension  and  multiplication,  have  since  brought  rivals  into  nearer 
competition,  while  the  completion  of  the  great  national  highway  to  the 
Pacific  has  materially  lessened  the  importance  of  her  location  in  trade  chan- 
nels. 

Despite  the  remarkable  boldness  and  dash  manifested  by  Chicago  in  her 
outward  evidences  of  prosperity,  maintained  in  great  newspapers,  marrelous 
hotels,  magnificent  buildings,  and  speedy  fortunes  acquired,  it  was  all  seen 
through  a  glamour  of  unsubstantiality.  The  rampant  spirit  of  speculation 
haunted  all  her  operations,  and  a  gloss  of  dor6  covered  all  her  enterprises. 
The  growth  of  St.  Louis,  on  the  other  hand,  though  slower,  was  more  sure 
and  solid.  Although  its  buildings  extended  less  rapidly,  the  value  of  real 
estate  had  advanced  in  a  greater  comparati  ve  proportion.  Gradually  the  trade 
of  Chicago  was  being  diverted  toward  the  nearer,  the  more  accessible  and 


APPENDIX.  615 

larger  market,  and  already  several  prominent  Chicago  business  houses  had 
Bought  footing  in  the  better  field.  This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when 
the  fire  fiend  came  to  sweep  the  Lake  City  with  his  besom  of  destruction, 
inflictixg  a  blow  from  which  she  will  scarcely  recover  in  the  present  genera- 
tion. 

Already  a  large  portion  of  her  population  has  deserted;  some,  through 
the  stress  of  poverty,  have  been  driven  to  other  localities,  while  no  limited 
number  of  the  more  fortunate  have  seized  upon  the  opportunity  of  trans- 
ferring their  business  to  St.  Louis. 

No  doubt,  the  people  of  Chicago  will  struggle  earnestly  against  their  ad- 
verse fate,  and  that  a  new  city  will  arise  speedily  from  the  ashes  of  the  old 
one ;  but  it  will  never  be  the  Carthage  of  old.  Its  prestige  has  passed  away, 
like  that  of  a  man  who  turns  the  downward  hill  of  life;  its  glory  will  be 
of  the  past,  not  the  present ;  while  its  hopes,  once  so  bright  and  cloudless, 
will  be  to  the  end  marred  and  blackened  by  the  smoke  of  its  fiery  fate. 


GENERAL  EXPRESSIONS  FROM  OUTSIDERS. 


HCMA*  NATURE  AT  ITS  BEST. 

[From  the  St.  Panl  Press,  October  15.] 

This  supreme  tragedy,  in  which  a  hundred  thousand  human  beings 
passed,  in  a  single  awful  night,  by  one  terrible  stroke  of  Providence,  from 
the  extreme  of  human  prosperity  to  the  extreme  of  human  misery,  has 
melted  the  heart  of  Christendom  as  no  other  catastrophe  of  human  woe  has 
melted  it  within  the  memory  of  man. 

Such  a  calamity  as  this  tests  the  quality  of  our  civilization,  and  tho 
result  proves,  as  all  great  calamities  prove,  that  men  every-where  are 
better  and  nobler  than  they  seem,  and  that  under  all  the  sordid  selfishness 
of  trade  there  pulses  a  fine  and  sweet  humanity,  and  through  all  the  coarse 
ties  which  bind  together  the  material  interests  of  States,  and  cities,  and 
Tillages,  there  run  sensitive  electric  nerves  of  fraternal  love  and  sympathy 
which  weave  mankind  together  in  a  universal  kinship. 

Such  a  magnificent  outburst  of  human  sympathy  was  never  witnessed 
in  this  country  as  that  which  was  evoked  by  the  Chicago  fire.  The  whole 
country  leaped  spontaneously  to  the  rescue,  and  all  its  cities  and  villages 
rose  up  00  if  by  a  common  impulse  of  generosity  to  relieve  the  victims  of 


516  APPENDIX. 

this  sudden  and  overwhelming  blow.  Every  telegraph  line  was  subsidized 
to  convey  messages  that  instant  relief  was  on  the  way,  and  thirty  railroad 
lines  were  burdened  the  same  day  with  the  offerings  of  money,  food, 
clothes,  and  other  necessaries  forwarded  to  the  sufferers.  Jn  presence 
of  this  stupendous  catastrophe,  human  nature  rose  to  its  most  heroic  and 
exalted  mood,  and  never  has  it  shone  more  brightly  since  the  dark  days  of 
our  civil  war,  than  in  the  glare  of  the  great  Chicago  conflagration.  The 
aggregate  contributions  to  the  relief  of  the  Chicago  sufferers  must  already 
have  reached  millions.  But  the  generosity  of  the  sympathizing  world  is 
outdone  by  the  heroism  of  the  sufferers.  So  great  a  calamity  was  never  so 
nobly  endured.  Thousands  of  men  who  have  been  toiling  a  lifetime  for 
wealth  or  a  competence,  have  seen  the  accumulations  of  years  swept 
away  in  a  single  night,  and  yet,  reduced  to  beggary,  as  they  are,  there  is 
no  despair — not  even  despondency.  The  fire  has  conquered  their  houses, 
but  not  their  hearts.  Their  warehouses  are  low  in  the  dust,  but  their 
courage  and  their  hopes  are  still  as  high  as  ever — and  the  marvelous  en- 
ergy which  built  Chicago  is  now  already  busy  clearing  away  the  ashes  of 
its  ruins  to  rebuild  it,  as  if  it  was  not  much  of  a  fire  after  all. 

RAMIFICATIONS  OP  THE  DISASTER. 

[From  the  N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser,  October  20.] 

It  is  not  one  of  the  least  effects  of  the  Chicago  disaster  that  it  reaches 
deep  strata  in  our  social  life,  as  well  as  in  our  moneyed  circles. 

The  bankruptcy  of  many  companies  in  New  York  and  Chicago  has  in- 
volved in  heavy  losses  hundreds  of  private  citizens,  to  whom  insurance 
dividends  gave  a  handsome  and  constant  income,  but  now  their  stock  is 
worth  nothing.  A  case  in  point  occurred  in  this  city  last  week — a  young 
lady,  inheriting  a  large  fortune,  not  long  ago,  invested  the  bulk  of  it  in 
insurance  stocks,  attracted  by  the  largo  profits  of  that  method  of  invest- 
ment, but  the  ftvilnre  of  the  companies  since  the  Chicago  disaster  has 
reduced  her  to  comparative  poverty.  Merchants  in  New  York,  Boston, 
and  elsewhere,  who  had  ventures  in  Chicago,  safe  in  ordinary  times,  can 
now  look  for  only  partial  payments,  and  in  many  cases  must  submit  to 
total  loss.  Private  capitalists,  who  had  large  resources  a  month  since,  and 
were  eager  to  begin  new  enterprises,  have  been  compelled,  by  this  disaster, 
to  alter  their  plans,  and  promising  projects  are  set  aside.  Those  who  had 
money  out  on  call  have  been  forced  to  take  it  up,  and  the  borrowers  in  all 
branches  'of  business  have  come  to  grief  accordingly.  The  sudden  and 
serious  blow  to  the  business  of  the  Stock  Exchange  has  embarrassed  a 
very  large  number,  and  all  investments  are  less  valuable  now  than  they 
were  when  the  month  opened.  And,  to  crown  all,  the  terrible  shaking  up 
of  the  insurance  companies  in  every  part  of  the  country  has  inspired  a 
feeling  of  distrust  in  regard  to  the  safety  of  the  risks  held  upon  property 


APPENDIX.  517 

as  yet  untouched  by  fire.  So  it. is  not  in  one  or  two  circles  alone  that  the 
Chicago  blow  is  felt,  but  in  every  community  in  the  Union  a  direct  effect 
is  visible. 

NEW  YORK'S  NEED  OF  CHICAGO. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce  : 

I  was  well  pleased  with  the  remarks  of  Governor  Bross,  of  Chicago, 
before  the  Chamber  of  Commerce;  but  there  is  one  point  which  might  well 
be  added  for  the  consideration  of  New  York. 

It  is  this:  New  York  can  not  afford  to  have  Chicago  ruined,  or  seriously 
injured.  Some  one  well  remarked  that  New  York  and  Chicago  were 
members  of  a  firm,  and  it  would  not  do  to  have  the  junior  member  ruined. 
It  might  well  be  said  that  the  two  cities  are  like  the  Siamese  twins — when 
one  is  sick  the  other  is  sick  also,  so  intimately  are  the  interests  of  the  two 
connected. 

What  Cincinnati  is  to  Baltimore,  Chicago  is  to  New  York.  Blot  out 
Chicago,  and  the  trade  she  now  has  would  be  divided  between  St.  Louis, 
Cincinnati,  and  Milwaukee.  That  part  of  it  which  St.  Louis  got  would  go 
largely  to  New  Orleans  and  Baltimore.  The  part  which  Cincinnati  got 
would  largely  go  to  Baltimore  also,  while  the  part  which  fell  to  the  lot  of 
Milwaukee  would  be  divided  between  New  York  and  Boston. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  the  most  serious  blow 
•which  New  York  could  receive  would  be  the  destruction  of  Chicago. 

I  am  speaking  more  particularly  of  grocery  goods,  such  as  sugar,  cof- 
fee, etc.  A  careful  estimate,  based  upon  established  facts,  shows  us  that 
Chicago  bought  last  year  nine  hundred  thousand  (900,000)  barrels  of 
sugar,  or  an  average  of  three  thousand  (3000)  barrels  daily  for  every  work- 
ing day  in  the  year.  I  have  not  the  data  for  the  amount  of  coffee  bought, 
but  it  was  as  large  in  proportion. 

Already.a  large  part  of  that  trade  has  been  diverted  to  Baltimore  and 
Boston,  and  with  the  ruin  of  Chicago,  they,  with  New  Orleans,  would  get 
the  lion's  share  of  it.  New  York  is  doing  nobly  in  giving  to  the  sufferers, 
but  she  must  do  something  to  keep  up  the  credit  of  the  junior  partner,  or 
tbejirm  of  New  York  and  Chicago  will  suffer  badly. 

LESSONS  FROM  THE  FIRE. 

[From  the  New  York  Time*,  October,  23.] 

When  the  great  fire  in  London  occurred,  we  can  not  doubt  that  public 
joy  was  expressed  in  Holland  and  Spain.  The  calamity  of  one  great 
power  was  then  thought  the  gain  of  all  others.  Now,  political  economy  has 
taught,  and  religion  sanctions  the  axiom,  that  the  losses  of  one  nation 
are  the  misfortune  of  all.  Chicago  herself  feels  this  great  generosity  and 


618  APPENDIX. 

sympathy  of  the  world  fur  more  even  than  the  money  contributions,  rich 
as  those  are.  They  seem  to  have  given  her  new  life  and  hope  in  her  hard 
struggle.  Now,  too,  for  the  first  time,  men  have  appreciated  the  precious 
value  of  that  best  feature  in  America — a  pure  family  life.  In  the  utter 
beggary  of  all  worldly  goods,  with  years  of  penury  and  sacrifice  opening 
before  them,  and  all  their  hard-earned  wealth  suddenly  turned  to  ashes, 
they  have  found  a  new  treasure  in  the  love  of  wife  and  child,  which  has 
shone  brighter  and  purer  the  more  utter  and  crushing  the  calamity.  We 
hear  of  one  wealthy  merchant  stripped  of  every  thing,  who  sends  his 
children  away  to  his  relatives,  while  his  wife  becomes  his  book-keeper,  and 
they  start  in  life  anew  in  a  single  room.  But  the  innumerable  instances  of 
woman's  generosity  and  sympathy  in  this  hour  of  man's  misfortune,  will 
never  be  known  except  on  the  records  of  heaven. 

It  can  not  but  be,  also,  that  a  profound  moral  lesson  will  reach  both  the 
West  and  the  whole  country  from  this  tremendous  calamity.  The  two 
cities  which  will  suffer  from  it  most  have  been  the  centers  of  national 
gambling  and  the  wildest  speculation.  New  York  and  Chicago  have  the 
evil  reputation  of  containing  the  most  insane  and  untiring  hunters  for 
wealth,  the  most  unscrupulous  speculators  in  grain  and  stocks,  and  the 
most  extravagant  spendthrifts  of  wealth  suddenly  made,  who  have  ever 
been  known  under  modern  civilization.  This  awful  misfortune  suddenly 
falling  on  these  classes,  must  touch  those  sentiments  which  are  never 
utterly  dried  up  in  the  human  breast — the  desire  for  other  goods  than  the 
things  seen  and  temporal,  and  the  sense  of  the  nothingness  of  all  worldly 
wealth,  compared  with  the  riches  unseen  and  eternal. 

CHICAGO  AND  ST.  Louis. 

[From  the  St.  Louis  Democrat,  October  21.] 

That  the  annihilation  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  wealth  in  one  city  can 
absolutely  benefit  another  city,  is  impossible.  Wealth,  in  its  broadest 
meaning,  is  the  material  for  supplying  human  needs,  and  is  the  product 
of  human  toil.  Its  exchangeable  character  imparts  to  it  a  fluid  nature,  so 
that  every  important  increase  of  it  in  one  place  is  sooner  or  later  an  actual 
increase  in  other  places,  and  every  material  diminution  of  it  in  one  locality 
is  sooner  or  later  an  actual  diminution  of  it  in  others.  If  ten  thousand 
houses  are  destroyed,  all  their  occupants  are  not  only  made  houseless,  but 
temporarily  cease  to  be  producers,  buyers,  and  consumers,  to  the  extent 
that  they  were,  and  a  blow  is  given  to  universal  trade.  As  far  as  they 
can  rebuild,  so  far  the  prices  of  materials  and  labor  are  raised,  and  so  far 
the  loss  falls  upon  all  who  need  such  materials  or  labor.  If  active  in- 
dustries are  paralyzed,  so  much  production  is  withdrawn  from  the  total 
production,  and  every  consumer  ultimately  suffers.  This  line  of  thought 
may  be  continued  indefinitely,  and  will  show  that  not  even  St.  Louis,  the 


APPEXDIX.  619 

| 

rival  of  Chicago,  can  Le  actually  benefited  by  the  prostration  of  the  latter. 
In  a  thousand  unimaginable  ways  this  disaster  will  act  and  react,  directly 
and  indirectly,  upon  the  essential  thrift  of  some  three  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  people  of  our  city,  and  if  it  brings  more  money  into  some  men's 
coffers,  it  will  at  last  tike  still  more  money  from  the  pockets  of  the  masses. 
It  is  a  blow  to  this  whole  agricultural  region,  and  through  it  to  the  cities 
which  that  region  sustains.  That  business  will  seek  a  level,  like  water,  is  an 
old  and  true  adage.  Subtract  vastly  from  capital  in  one  locality  by  send- 
ing it  up  in  flames  and  smoke  to  the  atmosphere,  and  the  main  level  is 
lowered,  and  the  prime  sources  of  metropolitan  growth  every-where  are 
reduced.  Were  it  possible  for  any  human  being  worthy  of  the  name  to 
exult  in  the  ruin  of  a  great  city,  this  consideration  alone,  had  he  intelli- 
gence enough  to  pursue  it,  would  prevent  such  a  sentiment 

SUDDENNESS  OF  CHICAGO'S  GROWTH. 

[From  the  London  Times,  October  11.] 

When  Mr.  Cobden  complained  that  English  schoolboys  were  taught  all 
about  a  trumpery  Attic  stream  called  the  llissus,  but  nothing  of  Chicago, 
it  should  have  been  remembered  in  fairness  that  at  that  time  Chicago  had 
hardly  existed  long  enough  to  be  known  by  any  but  merchants.  It  will 
now  not  soon  be  forgotten.  We  may  be  confident,  however,  that  the 
natural  resources  of  the  place,  and  the  native  energy  of  the  Americans, 
will  more  than  repeat  the  marvels  of  the  original  development  of  the  city. 
The  novelty  and  rapid  growth  of  American  civilization  render  the  people 
far  more  indifferent  to  such  calamities  than  dwellers  in  older  countries 
who  are  conscious  that  their  possessions  are  the  accumulation  of  centuries. 
At  the  same  time  with  the  news  of  the  fire  the  telegraph  informed  us  that 
its  mercantile  effects  were  already  being  discounted  in  New  York,  and  we 
have  no  doubt  there  are  numbers  <jf  enterprising  speculators  who  see  their 
way  to  fortune  through  the  speedy  reconstruction  of  the  city.  The  most 
cordial  sympathy  will  be  felt  in  this  country  with  individual  sufferers,  and 
we  can  only  wish  the  great  mercantile  community  of  the  West  the  prompt 
recovery  which  their  energy  deserves. 

"  RKSCRGAM." 

[From  the  London  Telegraph,  October  11.] 

It  is  idle  to  suppose  that  such  a  city  is  destined  to  become  a  Tadmor 
in  the  wilderness,  or  to  sink  into  the  chronic  decadence  of  Sebastopol 
after  the  bombardment  "Resurgam"  might  be  written  upon  every  brick 
of  the  burnt-up  houses  of  Chicago.  It  will  rise  again,  and  with  a  venge- 
ai.ce.  Luckily  no  venerable  cathedrals,  no  historic  palaces,  no  monu- 
ments of  art,  no  hoary  relics  of  antiquity  have  perished  in  the  colossal 
fire.  Chicago  has  blazed  away  with  the  rapidity  of  lace  curtains,  or  of 


620  APPENDIX. 

"ornaments"  in  a  drawing-room  grate.  The  articles  were  handsome  and 
expensive,  but  they  can  be  replaced.  To  repair  the  injury  done,  all  that 
is  wanted  is  a  certain  amount  of  resources,  energy,  and  pluck;  and  in  pluck, 
energy,  and  resources  the  American  people  will  never  be  bankrupt. 

A  swift  steamer,  laden  with  warm  clothing  and  body  linen,  for  both 
sexes  and  for  all  ages,  would  be  the  immediate  testimony  of  our  recogni- 
tion that  blood  is  thicker  than  water,  and  that,  when  Americans  are  in 
distress,  we  have  not  forgotten  our  common  parentage. 

CHICAGO'S  MAGNIFICENCE — A  LONDON  OPINION. 

[From  the  London  News,  October  11.] 

Nowhere  in  the  world — not  in  Manchester,  not  in  London,  not  in  New 
York — were  busier  streets  to  be  found.  A  river,  hardly  better  than  the 
Irwell,  flowing  through  part  of  the  business  quarter  of  the  city,  and 
spanned  by  innumerable  drawbridges,  did,  indeed,  make  hideous  some  of 
the  city  scenes,  which  showed  like  an  uproarious  Rotterdam  or  a  great 
commercial  Konigsberg.  But  the  streets  of  shops  and  banks  and  theaters 
and  hotels  might  stand  a  rivalry  with  those  of  any  city  in  the  world. 
Enormous  piles  of  warehouses,  with  handsome  and  costly  fronts;  huge 
"stores,"  compared  with  which  Schoolbred  s  or  Tarn's  seem  diminutive; 
hotels  as  large  as  the  Langham  or  the  Louvre;  bookshops  which  are 
unsurpassed  in  London  or  Paris;  and  theaters  where  Christine  Nilsson 
found  a  fortune  awaiting  her  such  as  the  Old  World  could  not  offer — such 
were  the  principal  features  of  that  wonderful  quarter  which  has  just  been 
reduced  to  ashes.  Nor  was  Chicago  wholly  given  up  to  business.  Her 
avenues  of  private  residences  were — some,  we  trust,  still  are — as  beautiful 
as  any  city  can  show.  Michigan  Avenue  and  Wabash  Avenue  were  the 
streets  where  her  merchant  princes  lived ;  and  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen 
in  Paris,  London,  or  New  York  to  surpass  either  avenue  in  situation  or  in 
beauty.  Michigan  Avenue  is  a  sort  of  Piccadilly,  with  a  lake  instead  of  a 
park  under  its  drawing-room  windows.  The  other  great  avenue  was  dis- 
tinguished from  almost  any  street  of  the  kind  in  Europe  or  the  United 
States  by  the  variety  of  its  architecture.  Mr.  Ruskin  himself  might  have 
acknowledged  that  in  this  civilized  and  modern  street,  at  least,  the  curse 
of  monotony  did  not  prevail,  and  the  yoke  of  the'  Italian  style  was  not 
accepted.  Let  it  be  added  that  Chicago,  having  the  advantage  of  newness, 
and  the  warning  of  all  the  world  before  her,  had  but  few  narrow  streets 
and  lanes.  The  thoroughfares  were,  as  a  rule,  nearly  all  of  the  same 
width.  The  inexperienced  traveler  often  found  himself  sadly  perplexed 
as  he  wandered  through  a  city  of  broad  white  streets,  each  looking  just 
like  another,  and  any  one  seeming  as  well  entitled  as  its  neighbor  to  claim 
the  leadership  in  business  or  fashion. 

Chicago  will  not  remain  in  her  ruins  as  an  ancient  city  might  have 


APPENDIX.  521 

done.  Already  in  the  thick  of  all  the  wreck  nnd  misery  we  may  be  sure 
that  active  and  undaunted  minds  are  planning  the  reconstruction  of  many 
a  gutted  and  blackened  building,  the  restoration  of  many  shattered  for- 
tunes. It  is  only  a  few  years  since  the  city  of  Portland,  in  Maine,  was 
destroyed  by  fire;  and  the  traveler  to-day  sees  there,  a  new,  busy,  and 
solid  town,  where  the  story  of  the  conflagration  has  already  become  a 
tradition.  The  people  of  Illinois  are  still  more  energetic  and  fertile  of 
expedient  than  the  people  of  Maine,  and  they  will  not  long  leave  the  city, 
which  was  their  pride,  to  lie  in  her  smoldering  ruins.  The  claims  which 
Chicago  used  at  one  time  to  urge  for  the  transference  of  the  National 
Capital  to  the  shore  of  her  lake,  are,  indeed,  put  out  of  court  for  the  pres- 
ent; and  her  rival,  St  Louis,  will,  for  some  time  to  come,  have  the 
advantage  of  her  in  the  race  for  commerce,  wealth,  and  population.  But 
the  city  whose  rate  of  growth  distanced  that  of  any  other  on  the  earth, 
will  not  be  long  in  recovering  the  effects  even  of  the  present  calamity. 
So  much  at  least  of  consolation  may  be  found.  Before  the  widows  and 
orphans  whom  this  catastrophe  bereaves,  shall  have  put  aside  the  robes  of 
mourning,  Chicago  will  be  rising  from  her  ruins,  perhaps  more  magnifi- 
cent than  ever.  Her  restoration,  we  may  feel  assured,  will  be  in  keeping 
with  the  marvelous  rapidity  of  her  rise,  and  the  awful  suddenness  of  her 
fall. 

WHY  SHE  WAS  BURKED — A  REBEL  VIEW. 
[From  the  Rushville,  Ind.,  American.] 

Near  one- half  the  city  has  been  laid  in  ashes,  and  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  people  rendered  homeless. 

The  announcement,  at  first,  seemed  incredible.  When  the  telegraph 
confirmed  the  facts,  a  thrill  of  horror  and  sympathy  pervaded  the  universal 
heart.  This  fact  presents  a  palliative  for  many  of  the  outrages  and  cruelties 
of  the  past  ten  years,  and  shows  that  human  nature  has,  after  all,  some 
redeeming  traits.  It  was  far  different  when  Sherman's  army  desolated 
and  destroyed  the  fairest  region  of  the  South,  robbing  and  plundering,  and 
burning  as  they  went,  leaving  the  people  to  starve;  or,  when  Sheridan,  a 
monster  of  cruelty,  overran  and  destroyed  the  valley  of  Virginia,  after- 
ward boasting  that  a  crow  would  hare  to  carry  its  provisions  under  its 
wings,  if  it  should  attempt  to  fly  over  it;  and  thus  he  brought  starvation 
on  the  old  men,  women,  and  children  of  that  region,  BO  that  thousands 
perished  of  famine.  More  property,  nnd  more  lives  were  destroyed  in 
these  raids  than  all  Chicago  put  together,  and  what  wns  the  sentiment  of 
the  North  ?  One  of  exultation  and  rejoicing.  These  actn  of  vandalism 
were  paraded  as  victories,  and  the  heroes  were  met  on  their  return  with 
orations  of  men  ami  oblations  of  kisses  from  many  of  tho-gcntfe  damsels 
44 


622  APPENDIX. 

of  the  North,  carried  away  by  the  military  glory  that  settled  around  the 
heads  of  these  vandal  chiefs,  that  was  degrading,  sickening,  disgusting! 
What  cared  these  women  for  the  homeless,  houseless,  starving  mothers  and 
children  of  the  South  ?  Nothing.  They  exulted  in  their  sufferings ; 
laughed  at  the  story  of  the  ravishment  of  the  daughters  of  the  South,  the 
burning  and  robberies  of  their  dwellings,  and  slaughter  of  her  strong  men; 
shouted  hosannahs  and  threw  from  the  tips  of  their  fingers  kisses  to  the 
perpetrators  of  these  acts  of  vandalism. 

That  waa  then  !  Now,  .  that  which  is  not  half  so  horrible,  thrills  their 
bosom  with  sympathy,  and  their  hand  is  quick  and  liberal  to  the  relief  of 
the  suflferers.  These  things  prove  that  man  is  a  good  deal  lower  than  the 
angels,  and  sometimes,  at  least,  a  little  higher  than  the  devils.  Chicago 
has  lost,  perhaps,  three  hundred  million  dollars  by  the  fire.  The  property 
destroyed  in  the  South  is  estimated  at  over  one  thousand  millions.  The 
fire  in  Chicago  was  the  result  of  accident  The  destruction  of  property  in 
the  South  Avas  done  purposely,  by  Northern  soldiers,  and  compares  exactly 
with  the  acts  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  savages  that  overran  and  sub- 
jugated the  Roman  Empire.  But  we  are  living  under  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion. Chicago  did  her  full  share  in  the  destruction  of  the  South.  God 
adjusts  balances.  Maybe  with  Chicago  the  books  are  now  squared 

CHICAGO  SUFFERING  FOR  THE  WORLD'S  SINS. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows  gave  an  eloquent  sermon,  in  his  church  in  New 
York,  on  Chicago,  on  the  Sunday  following  the  fire,  after  which  a  liberal 
collection  was  made.  He  said  the  real  Chicago  was  not  burned  at  all. 
Ten  years  will  not  leave  one  cinder-mark  on  her  robes.  Her  wealth  was 
visibly  represented  in  her  great  warehouses,  but  her  wealth  is  in  the 
souls,  breasts,  and  irrepressible  elasticity  of  her  citizens.  She  has  gained 
a  stimulant  in  activity,  and  a  name  which  will  realize  all  it  has  lost.  The 
great  lesson  which  Chicago  presented  is  that  humanity  is  loosened  from 
its  selfishness  and  shocked  into  a  sense  of  the  nobleness  of  true  riches. 
God  has  not  stirred  Chicago  for  its  sins.  It  is  now  punished  for  the  sins 
of  the  world. 

No,  FOR  HER  OWN  ! 
[From  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  October  20.] 

The  Rev.  Granville  Moody,  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Cincinnati,  haa 
been  preaching  an  occasional  sermon  on  "Fire,"  in  his  preliminary 
prayer  alluding  to  the  calamity  which  had  befallen  Chicago,  and  at- 
tributing it  to  the  fact  that  the  city  recently  gave  a  majority  vote  against 
Sunday  and  the  Liquor  Laws.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Moody  likewise  found  in 
the  fire  "  a  retributive  judgment  on  a  city  which  has  shown  such  a  de- 
votion in  its  worship  to  the  Golden  Calf,"  The  Rev.  Mr*  Moody  is 


APPEXDIX.  523 

Clearly  of  the  opinion  that  when  cities  sink  to  a  certain  depth  of  iniquity, 
the  Almighty  makes  it  his  particular  business  to  destroy  them;  and  the 
following  are  cited  as  instances  of  those  which  either  have  been  destroyed, 
or  may  expect  to  be  destroyed,  on  account  of  their  sins : 

Cincinnati,  Babylon,  Sodom,  Zeboim, 

New  York,  Jerusalem,  Gomorrah,  Herculaneum, 

Boston,  Tjre»  Zoar,  Pompeii, 

Chicago. 

MR.  BEECHER  ON  THB  CALAMITY. 
[From  a  "  Lecture  Room  Talk  "  of  Rev.  H.  "W.  Beecher,  Oct.  13.] 

It  has  become  a  matter  of  remark  to  those  who  study  the  interior  of 
history  that  events  move  in  cycles.  In  certain  years  there  are  riots,  or 
commercial  troubles,  and  so  it  would  seem  that  there  are  years  of  ca- 
tastrophes, and  this  might  be  called  the  year  of  fire.  In  the  burning  of 
town  after  town,  of  men,  women,  and  children  by  the  scores,  there  would 
seem  to  be  enough  to  terrify  us,  even  if  it  were  not  for  the  greater  disaster 
of  Chicago.  This  last  disaster  can  be  measured  by  the  way  in  which  it 
dwarfs  other  calamities.  I  am  utterly  unable  to  take  in  the  calamity  of 
Chicago.  As  it  is  in  the  case  of  mountains  when  first  seen,  I  can  not  ad- 
just my  sight  to  take  it  in.  It  was  so  during  the  war.  I  could  feel  only  so 
much,  and  then  1  was  full,  but  the  events  went  on.  So  with  this  disaster. 
The  desolation  of  a  house  is  as  much  as  you  can  feel,  but  take  a  street 
of  houses,  and  then  a  ward,  and  from  that  to  miles,  and  tens  of  thousands, 
and  fifty  thousand,  and  two  hundred  thousand  people  homeless,  and  it  is 
wholly  immeasurable.  The  mass  and  magnitude  of  suffering  can  not  be 
estimated.  Yet,  though  we  can  not  measure  it  and  take  it  in,  every  in- 
dividual goes  on  suffering.  Chicago  is  not  destroyed ;  like  another  Phoe- 
nix, it  will  rise  again.  The  strong  will  take  care  of  themselves  ;  but  O, 
for  the  poor,  the  women  and  children,  the  aged  and  the  stranger,  my 
heart  goes  out 

Next  to  the  greatness  of  the  calamity  is  the  admirableness  of  the  sym- 
pathy. The  whole  northern  part  of  the  nation  has  uprisen  and  stretched 
out  its  arms  and  taken  that  great  city  to  its  heart.  We  know  no  Catholic, 
no  Protestant,  no  Democrat,  no  Republican,  and  the  hand  of  the  charity 
of  this  nation  is  like  God's  hand,  that  sendeth  rain  upon  the  just  and  the 
unjust  It  is  sublime,  and  when  you  add  that  across  the  sea  the  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  German  nation  are  sending  their  gifts,  it  shows 
how  the  great  element  of  Christian  sympathy  has  unitized  the  world.  It 
is  )ne  of  the  auspicious  signs  of  the  times.  There  is  one  danger,  and  thai 
is  that  our  sympathy  will  be  merely  emotive,  and  that  as  the  weary  winter 
months  more  on  we  shall  get  tired.  Suffering  never  gets  tired.  Mr. 
remarked,  further  on:  "I  have  been  struck  with  the  indifferecco 


524  APPENDIX. 

of  some  men  to  the  terrific  suffering.  Some  say  there  can'4  be  a  devil. 
I  have  only  to  say  that  if  there  is  n't  a  devil  there  is  very  good  material 
to  make  one  of,  and  if  God  is  too  good  to  have  a  devil  in  chief,  He  isn't 
too  good  to  have  one  in  detail.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  wickedness  and 
inhumanity  of  those  men  who  have  taken  this  occasion  to  prey  upon  thei? 
fellow-men." 

A  POET'S  TRIBUTE. 

Men  said  at  vespers :  All  is  well ! 
In  one  wild  night  the  city  fell; 
Fell  shrines  of  prayer  and  marts  of  gain 
Before  the  fiery  hurricane. 
On  threescore  spires  had  sunset  shone, 
Where  ghastly  sunrise  looked  on  none ; 
Men  clasped  each  other's  hands  and  said : 
The  City  of  the  West  is  dead ! 
Brave  hearts  who  fought,  in  slow  retreat, 
The  fiends  of  fire  from  street  to  street, 
Turned,  powerless,  to  the  blinding  glare, 
The  dumb  defiance  of  despair. 
A  sudden  impulse  thrilled  each  wire 
That  signaled  round  that  sea  of  fire ; 
Swift  words  of  cheer,  warm  heart-throbs  came ; 
In  tears  of  pity  died  the  flame! 
From  East,  from  West,  from  South,  from  North, 
The  messages  of  hope  shot  forth, 
And,  underneath  the  severing  wave, 
The  world,  full-handed,  reached  to  save. 
Fair  seemed  the  old  ;  but  fairer  still 
The  new  the  dreary  void  shall  fill, 
With  dearer  homes  than  those  o'erthrown, 
For  love  shall  lay  eacli  corner-stone. 
Rise,  stricken  city ! — from  thee  throw 
The  ashen  sackcloth  of  thy  woe; 
And  build,  as  Thebes  to  Amphion's  strain, 
To  songs  of  cheer  thy  walls  again ! 
How  shriveled,  in  thy  hot  distress, 
The  primal  sin  of  selfishness ! 
How  instant  rose,  to  take  thy  part, 
*  The  angel  in  the  human  heart! 

Ah !  not  in  vain  the  flames  that  tossed 

Above  thy  dreadful  holocaust; 

The  Christ  again  has  preached  through  thee 

The  gospel  of  humanity! 

Then  lift  once  more  thy  towers  on  high, 

And  fret  with  spires  the  Western  sky, 

To  tell  that  God  is  yet  with  us, 

And  luvc  is  still  miraculous! 

[JOBJT  G.  WlHTTIB*. 


APPENDIX  D. 

THE  WORK  OF  RELIEF. 


REPORT  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA  COMMITTEE. 

4 

The  following  extracts  from  a  report,  made  by  a  committee  of  the  Phila- 
phia  benevolent  organizations  to  their  constituents,  are  given,  as  affording 
not  only  a  clear  sketch  of  the  operations  of  the  Chicago  Relief  Society,  but  aa 
showing  how  its  work  was  regarded  from  an  outside  standpoint.  The  account 
of  the  Committee  is  correct,  except  in  two  minor  respects ;  the  money  given 
out  by  the  Bureau  of  Special  Relief  is  intended  as  a  downright  gift,  and  the 
recipients  of  houses  from  the  Shelter  Committee  are  not  asked  to  give  even 
their  notes  in  payment,  except  where  their  circumstances  and  prospects 
are  such  as  to  justify  the  expectation  of  their  being  able  to  pay. 

The  committee,  after  enumerating  the  various  departments  of  the  Society's 
business,  each  in  charge  of  a  committee,  proceeds : 

"  To  these  committees  a  ninth  was  added  during  a  visit  of  your  com- 
mittee, entitled  the  Bureau  of  Special  Counsel  and  Assistance,  to  take 
charge  of  cases  which  could  not  be  readily  disposed  of  by  either  of  the 
others,  its  principal  functions  being  to  aid  those  who  were  suffering  in 
silence  because  they  had  not  made  their  wants  known,  and  by  supplying 
small  sums  of  money,  either  as  donations  or  as  advances  in  the  nature  of 
loans,  to  be  repaid  if  the  recipients  shall  be  able  to  do  so  in  the  future,  so 
as  to  aid  the  beneficiaries  in  their  efforts  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

"  Each  of  these  committees  is  employed  throughout  the  whole  of  the  day 
in  the  discharge  of  its  special  duties,  and  the  Chairmen  of  all  of  them 
meet  every  night  as  an  Executive  Board.  At  these  nightly  meetings  all 
the  proceedings  of  the  various  committees  are  reported,  and  all  information 
of  the  progress  and  developments  of  the  work  of  relief  is  concentrated. 
Your  committee,  by  invitation,  attended  one  of  these  meetings  i .  tire 
Executive  Board,  where  they  had  ample  opportunity  to  observe  its  pro- 
ceedings ;  and  they  were  also  invited  to  examine  the  whole  work  of  relief 
critically,  and  to  make  suggestions  in  the  way  of  improvement 

"The  business  of  your  committee  mainly  concerned  the  Executive  Board, 
nnd  the  subjects  of  food,  clothing,  fuel,  and  shelter.  Having  been  fully  and 
satisfactorily  advised  of  the  general  plan  of  operations,  by  the  Chairman 
of  the  Executive  Board,  your  committee  next  inquired  into  the  faithful, 
intelligent,  and  impartial  execution  of  the  work  in  its  details  by  the 
-ubordiniUe  agencies.  To  this  ond  they  visited  the  office  of  the  General 

(325) 


526  APPENDIX. 

Superintendent  of  Distribution  of  Supplies,  Mr.  O.  C.  Gibbs.  This  gen 
tleinan  lias  been  for  a  long  time  the  Agent  of  the  Relief  and  Aid  Society. 
Here  we  found  that  under  the  general  direction  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, of  which  Wirt  Dexter,  Esq.,  is  the  Chairman,  the  work  of  relief 
was  in  operation  under  a  thoughtfully-conceived  and  well-regulated  and 
methodized  system.  The  city  had  been  divided  into  districts  and  sub- 
districts,  in  each  of  which  there  was  a  carefully  selected  Superintendent  of 
DistributUhr,  aided  by  citizens  in  whom  the  people  of  the  districts  have 
confidence,  and  by  corps  of  visitors.  Books  had  been  opened  and  blank 
forms  printed,  so  as  to  carry  on  the  work  with  system  and  accuracy,  as 
well  as  dispatch.  Copies  of  all  these  printed  forms  were  furnished  your 
committee.  They  could  easily  see  that  the  system  adopted  was  well  calcu- 
lated to  prevent  imposition  on  the  part  of  the  applicants  not  entitled  to 
relief,  to  prevent  to  a  great  degree  the  duplication  of  aid  by  "repeating," 
to  prevent  wasteful  and  improvident  application  of  supplies,  and  above  all  to 
make  it  certain  that  that  meritorious  class  who  suffer  patiently,  and  who  are 
reluctant  to  make  their  wants  known,  shall  not  be  overlooked  or  neglected. 

"Each  of  the  districts  and  sub-districts  has  headquarters  where  applica- 
tions for  relief  are  received,  where  the  claims  of  the  applicants  are  examined 
according  to  a  printed  form  of  instructions,  and  where  the  results  are  filed 
and  recorded.  Each  one  of  the  districts  is  also  furnished  with  a  depot  for 
the  storage  and  distribution  of  supplies.  After  an  application  is  approved 
and  supplies  are  issued,  the  "visitor"  for  the  particular  locality  in  which 
the  applicant  is  lodged,  makes  a  further  examination  to  verify  the  state- 
ments of  the  applicants.  If  they  are  found  to  be  correct,  a  report  to  that 
effect  is  made:  if  otherwise,  no  further  supplies  are  issued.  In  addition  to 
this  duty  the  visitors  are  charged  with  another  important  service.  In  order 
to  find  all  who  need  or  deserve  aid,  they  have  been  instructed  to  go  from 
house  to  house,  until  the  whole  of  the  city  has  been  covered.  By  these 
means  a  full  registry  of  all  who  are  either  in  the  receipt  of  aid,  or  who  need  it, 
.  had  been  very  nearly  completed  before  your  committee  left  Chicago.  In 
the  examination  of  applicants  for  relief  according  to  the  printed  instruc- 
tions, every  thing  essential  to  the  identification  of  the  applicant  and  the 
verification  of  his  or  her  necessities  are  set  down  in  writing  on  the  printed 
forms  referred  to,  and  filed  for  reference  at  the  headquarters,  of  the  dis- 
trict; and  in  every  case  where  any  person  or  head  of  a  family  is  recom- 
mended for  relief,  and  supplies  of  any  kind  are  issued,  a  regular  account 
is  opened  under  the  name  of  the  beneficiary  in  a  large  ledger  specially 
prepared  for  the  purpose. 

"In  this  account  all  the  particulars  concerning  the  relief  granted,  what 
the  supplies  consisted  of,  the  date  when  they  were  issued,  how  many  per- 
sons they  were  to  maintain,  and  how  many  days  the  supplies  furnished 
ought  to  last  with  care  and  economy,  are  all  noted,  and  can  bo  understood 


APPENDIX.  627 

at  a  glance.  By  interchange  of  these  recorded  sources  of  information 
among  the  several  districts, 'there  is  a  reasonable  approach  to  certainty,  that 
no  persons  entitled  to  relief  can  procure  supplies  at  more  than  one  place. 
"Thus  far  your  committee  had  'ascertained  the  mode  of  distribution" 
of  food,  clothing,  and  fuel,  according  to  the  general  plan,  and  in  the  details 
of  its  execution.  It  remained  to  them  to  pursue  their  inquiries  as  to  the 
subject  of  shelter.  The  subject  of  providing  shelter  for  the  hundred 
thousand  people  whose  houses  had  been  destroyed  was  one  of  the  most 
difficult  with  which  the  Relief  and  Aid  Society  had  to  grapple,  and  the 
way  in  which  it  has  been  dealt  with,  affords  an  opportunity  to  illustrate 
the  intelligence,  energy,  business-like  economy,  and  prompt  dispatch  with  " 
which  its  executive  board  does  its  work.  Immediately  after  the  fire,  and 
before  the  Aid  Society  was  intrusted  with  the  work  of  relief,  some  of  the 
homeless  sufferers  were  taken  into  the  houses  of  the  unburned  districts 
among  their  acquaintances,  but  the  great  body  of  them  were  housed  tem- 
porarily in  church  buildings,  school  buildings,  empty  warehouses,  &c. 
There  was,  of  course,  intense  discomfort,  and  great  risk  of  disease  and 
death  from  privation,  exposure,  and  overcrowding.  Then  the  authorities 
commenced  the  hasty  construction  of  barracks  in  long,  close  and  incon- 
venient rows  on  vacant  ground.  These,  although  better  than  the  crowded 
churches  and  other  large  buildings,  were  still  very  objectionable ;  and 
the  Aid  Society,  immediately  upon  coming  into  control  of  the  relief  funds, 
adopted  a  very  different  and  much  more  effective  plan.  They  procured 
estimates  in  minute  detail  for  the  construction  of  cheap  separate  dwellings 
of  two  kinds,  one  for  families  of  not  more  than  three  persons,  and  one  for 
families  of  four  or  five  persons.  These  were  immediately  printed,  with 
diagrams  and  schedules  of  particulars  embracing  all  the  necessary  ma- 
terials. A  copy  is  annexed  to  this  report  The  dimensions  of  the  house 
for  five  persons  are  16  feet  by  20,  one  story  high.  The  house  contains 
two  rooms,  one  12  feet  t>y  16,  and  one  8  by  16.  Wherever  a  sufferer  by 
the  fire  owned  or  had  a  lease  upon  the  lot  on  which  his  or  her  house  was 
situated,  or  could  procure  the  use  of  a  lot,  an  order  was  at  once  issued 
by  the  Committee  on  Shelter  for  all  the  materials  for  the  construction  of 
the  house.  Every  thing  was  so  well  arranged  in  this  business  that  three 
mechanics  could  put  up  such  a  house  in  two  days.  It  is  estimated  that 
eight  thousand  of  them  in  all  will  be  required ;  and  of  these  not  less  than 
three  thousand  had  been  erected  before  your  committee  left  Chicago,  And. 
the  materials  had  been  issued  for  at  least  one  thousand  more..  The  total 
cost  of  the  house  for  five  persons,  including  a  cook-stove,  a  mattress,  bed 
ding,  and  half  a  ton  of  coal,  is  $110!  The  house  is  not  furnished  to  the 
beneficiary  aa  a  gift,  but  in  order  to  stimulate  thrift,  to  cultivate  the  sen- 
timent of  self-respect,  and  to  guard  against  imposition,  a  note  for  the 
amount  without  interest  is  taken,  payable  iu  one  your. 


528  APPENDIX. 

"This  plan  has  worked  admirably,  nnd  that  it  has  been  carried  out  with 
wonderful  dispatch  nnd  economy,  the  facts  your  committee  have  recited 
fully  prove.  In  further  illustration  of  the  forethought,  energy,  and  economy 
of  the  Aid  Society's  movements,  it  is  worthy  of  mention  that  immediately 
upon  the  adoption  of  the  plan  of  furnishing  separate  dwellings  for  tho 
homeless  sufferers,  and  before  the  plan  was  made  public,  apprehending 
a  possible  rise  in  the  price  of  lumber,  a  member  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, under  authority  of  the  committee,  mounted  his  horse,  visited  the 
great  lumber  depots,  and  in  three  hours  made  contracts  for  all  the  lum- 
ber required,  at  six  dollars  per  thousand  feet  less  than  the  rise  which 
immediately  followed. 

"  After  a.n  examination  of  all  these  matters,  both  in  their  general  direc- 
tion and  the  administration  of  their  details,  and  after  considering  informa- 
tion obtained  from  other  trustworthy  sources,  your  committee  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  'the  mode  of  distributing'  the  relief  money  and  supplies 
contributed  to  the  suffering  people  of  Chicago,  as  at  present  administered 
under  the  auspices  of  the  'Aid  and  llelief  Society'  of  that  city,  is  admi- 
rably adapted  to  the  purpose,  and  that  its  direction  is  intrusted  to  able, 
experienced  and  eminently  trustworthy  hands.  They  were  strongly  im- 
pressed with  the  superior  intelligence,  large  administrative  capacity,  and 
high  character  of  the  men  who  plan,  direct,  and  give  impulse  to  the  work. 

"More  than  a  hundred  thousand  people  were  left  without  the  shelter  of 
a  roof,  most  of  them  without  a  change  of  clothes,  and  at  least  half  of  them 
utterly  destitute.  When  your  committee  reached  Chicago,  they  were 
grateful  to  hear  the  assurance  that  all  of  those  who  remained  in  Chicago 
and  who  need  assistance  were  housed  in  some  way,  and  were  supplied 
with  clothes  sufficient  for  present  emergencies.  About  forty  thousand 
persons  were  being  supplied  with  food  on  Thursday  last,  October  26,  but 
the  number  was  in  course  of  reduction  through  the  vigilance  of  the  visitors 
and  the  exertions  of  the  Committee  on  Employment.  It  is  expected,  how- 
ever, that  not  less  than  twenty-five  to  thirty  thousand  of  the  destitute  will 
have  to  be  carried  through  the  winter  and  early  spring  months.  The 
severest  part  of  the  trial,  and  the  period  of  greatest  distress  for  all  these, 
are  yet  to  come.  These  considerations  suggest  continued  exercise  of  the 
benevolence  already  so  generously  expressed,  and  such  encouragement  and 
support  to  the  excellent  society  charged  with  the  administration  of  the 
world's  bounty  to  the  ruined  city,  as  will  strengthen  its  purpose  to  check 
all  tendency  toward  profuse  and  wasteful  distribution,  so  that  its  stores 
and  resources  may  be  husbanded  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  trying  season 
yet  to  come. 

"Jos.  PATTERSOX,  GEO.  G.  MEADE, 

WM.  V.  MOKEAX,          GEO.  II.  STDART." 


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